Great Teacher OniGuzma
by SuperfastSquiddle
Summary: After disbanding Team Skull Guzma, the team's former boss, decides to return to his home on Melemele Island. There, after a once in a lifetime opportunity arises, he is accepted into a teaching position at his old Pokemon school. Though with his infamous reputation, winning over his students will be a tough task. It is one that he is more than determined to take on.
1. Chapter 1: Aftermath

**Author's Note: Thank you to my editor and my friend AdmiralJellybeans for helping me with this story. I will aim to update on a weekly basis and constructive criticism is more than welcome. I hope you all enjoy.**

Guzma stared at the flier in his hands as he slowly lied down in his musty, old bed. He felt the smooth, glossy paper between his fingers as he stared tiredly at what was essentially his last chance.

…

He had returned to his childhood home after agreeing to, no, being _forced_ to go on a trip around Alola with Melemele Island's long time Kahuna, Hala. The old man normally got on Guzma's nerves more than anything else, with his attempts to mentor him as a child often coming across as babying. He didn't think he needed a mentor; however, Hala proved to be quite the guide when it came to life. Guzma even found himself, on the rare occasion, having fun spending time with the old man. With the Kahuna's guidance he was able to realize a lot of things about himself and for the first time in years he was absolutely determined to make something of his life.

To leave an impact on this world was one of his greatest desires. Though he had already achieved this through Team Skull, the thought of being remembered by the entire world as nothing but the boss of a criminal gang left a sour taste in his mouth. He wanted to be respected. But respect, as he recently came to realize, could not be forced upon others. Respect had to be earned. He could thank Hala for that; the old bastard's lectures were too influential for his own good.

Guzma now knew that he needed to start small, so after the trip he returned to the most insignificant, small-time place he could think of: Melemele Island. This is where he grew up, the quietest and most uneventful island in the entire Alola Region. He made it a point to stay away from this place for many years, as a stew of both nostalgic and highly distressing memories resurfaced at every mention of it. But he decided to grit his teeth and bear it, for he was better than that now.

At first he had only visited his childhood home a few times since Team Skull disbanded, as this was one of the last places in the entire world he wanted to see again; hence, he made sure that his father was definitely at work before visiting. Guzma had spoken to his mother for the first time in eight years that first evening. Yet even though she was brought to tears after seeing him again, after everything that had happened he could not help but feel that her apologies rang hollow. He decided to continue to try and visit for her sake. Though that didn't last too long; during the third visit the region champion visited and battled with him. Almost immediately afterwards Hala dragged him away for a little over a month.

He stood just before the front porch; it was late evening and he knew for sure that his father was home at this hour. This knowledge had managed to put him in one hell of a bitter mood even before he arrived. Guzma slinked through the front door and then, realizing he had been spotted, quickly stormed through the living area and into his room. He shut the door with a loud slam before either of his parents even had the chance to open their mouths. After all, he hadn't spoken to his father in eight years and was determined to keep it that way for a long, long time. The only thing he desired in that moment then was a warm bed. He did not want to sleep on the streets that night.

His room had lost that familiar scent after being absent for so long, and instead he inhaled the depressing stench of loneliness and regret. It looked like his mom kept the room clean. His trophies caught his eye, all that were bronze except for one lonely silver positioned by his bedside. The more he looked at them the angrier he grew. Years of his skills never being truly acknowledged began to burn in his mind's eye. He looked away, for the last thing he wanted to do tonight was break something. Instead his eyes fell on his large plasma screen TV; he could see his reflection clearly. He was wearing his usual getup aside from his Team Skull necklace. Guzma calmed himself down and smiled a little; damn did he look good, he always looked good, though the sight of just a plain white shirt with no bling to accompany it left something to be desired. His old Wii-U was below the TV exactly where he left it-he had a fun time with it and was quite the avid gamer in his teenage years. He even managed to teach his beloved Wimpod, now a bold and intimidating Golisopod, to play video games with him. The thought of gaming; however, had long lost its charm-he could probably pawn the console and games for a pretty good price.

Guzma turned and unceremoniously threw his duffel bag on his old bed with a _thump_ , the sound directing him to his prized stereo at the bed's foot. He remembered saving up for it himself, and he even payed for each CD out of his own pocket. He let out a small pleased sigh when he caught sight of it. It was exactly how he left it. It was the one thing he regretted not being able to take with him when he ran away all those years ago, because it was simply too large to carry. He ran his fingers over its smooth black surface,recalling how he danced alone in his room as a teen. Surely he looked like an absolute fool back then, but his prowess at the art of hip hop dancing had greatly improved since.

He flinched at the sound of a loud knock at the door, followed by a shout. He quickly locked it and flopped down onto his bed. This would pass pretty soon. He buried his head in his pillow to drown out the room was where he stayed until the morning but, like most other nights, sleep failed to find him.

Guzma spent the next day in Hau'oli city trying to find a job. He was searching for any kind of job. Ok that was a lie, as some things were simply beneath him. The entire process annoyed him; people should have been coming to him whilst feeling nothing less than proud to give him a position! But, as was obvious to him, this was not the case. Though he tried to be respectful and charming towards anyone he came across, during that week the presence of fear and rejection in their voices was obvious. He was a known felon, an extremely infamous one at that. Despite this he did not regret running away and forming Team Skull, for some of the best experiences of his life were with that team and its members. He wouldn't trade that for the world.

After a week of searching he slowly began to give up hope. Though Guzma was an extremely determined person, Hau'oli was a small city and any opportunities that were available steadily begun to run out. But then one morning he decided to check the notice board in the city hall and there he noticed a new flier. Guzma's eyes widened and he immediately snatched it from the board and sprinted towards his house.

Now he was lying on his bed with the flier gripped between his fingers. On it was an ad for a teaching position at the Pokemon school that he attended as a kid, specifically for teaching children how to battle and raise Pokemon. The interview was at 6:00pm the following night. It was perfect for him; he did not have much productive life skills but raising Pokemon to be strong was a specialty of his. In his mind nobody was more deserving of this role than him. Yet with his recent streak of failures what would stop the school board from rejecting him too? In fact, they had every right to. But this was his last chance, and like everything else he set his mind to he was going to give this opportunity everything he had.

The next evening Guzma stood in front of the school entranceway. The sun was beginning to set and the street was lonely and cold. He had worn his usual getup as he had nothing else to wear that even looked _remotely_ good. Although he was pretty sure that for an interview he looked far from presentable, he thought it be best that he was authentic rather than lying from the start. Speaking of lying he could not bear to lie on his hand-written resume. So he listed every second and third place position that he earned in competitions throughout his life, despite how much it pained him to do so.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. At this moment he had nothing left to lose. After all, everything that he worked so hard to establish had crumbled right in front of him. With a determined look in his eyes he entered the school grounds. It was time to start from the beginning.


	2. Chapter 2: Choices and Chances

Guzma didn't need to follow the signs placed around the school to find his way to the principal's office. He knew these halls front to back from his years of attendance at the Pokémon School. There was no one else to be seen anywhere. Then again, he did arrive quite early to ensure that he was the first to be interviewed. First impressions are extremely important after all. He placed his hand on the door to the office, took a deep breath and then knocked loudly.

He heard a hearty "come in!" from inside of the office and could instantly tell who it was. As he walked in he saw the principal of the school, Mrs Asuka Kahananui, sitting at her desk organizing some important looking papers. Though she was now in her 50s she looked quite nice for her age, her neatly styled short black hair and dark skin complimented the deep blue of her dress shirt nicely. The sight of her was nostalgic to him, but caused a slight sense of apprehension to well up within him. From what he could remember, though she was a very nice person she had a strong sense of pride, particularly towards her school. She would often playfully tease him on his fashion sense, music taste and posture. He doubted that he fit the image she had in mind for her school in the slightest.

She looked up to see him enter the room, her eyes widened and a smile spread across her face. "Oh! Would you look who it is! My, now this is a surprise!"

"Principal Kahananui, I haven't seen y'all in ages. You haven't changed one bit," he said with an air of confidence about him, though as much as he tried he could not shake his apprehensiveness upon seeing her. She intimidated him as a young boy, it seems that feeling had not changed.

He sat down in the chair positioned in front of her desk hunching over slightly, though he did not notice as his posture had been consistently poor throughout his life.

Principal Kahananui placed a hand over her mouth as she chuckled. "You are too kind! Look at you; you have changed quite a bit, so tall now! So what gives me the pleasure of seeing one of my former students tonight?" she said sweetly. Guzma was confused more than anything by this joyful response. She knew what he had done, right?

"I'm here for the interview, teach. I mean, principal," he remarked. Inside he cursed himself for that slip up as he handed her the resume he prepared earlier.

She cocked her eyebrow at the sight of his resume. "Oh really now?" she commented with a hint of surprise in her voice.

In return he mirrored her confused expression, did she not think he was serious? He felt his self assurance begin to slowly slip away the longer she stared at him. "Really, I'm not joking," he said while sitting up straight.

She smiled slyly at that response. "Even to this day you continue to surprise me, shall we begin in that case?" she suggested, "also don't worry about formalities, you can call me what you like."

Surprised her? What the heck did she mean by that? He simply nodded in response, wearing a now serious expression on his face. Despite how calm he made himself appear he could not shake the feeling that she could see how nervous he was.

She cleared her throat. "Now, what do you think are the key qualities and skills that students look for in a teacher? What would a student want out of you as an educator?"

This first question had made Guzma realize how little he had thought this through. He thought he would be primarily asked questions about how he would teach a person certain concepts involving Pokémon battling and care. Even rehearsing potential answers and scenarios based around that assumption. He very quickly decided to scrap all of that and ad-lib any responses as truthfully as he could.

This first question made him think back to what he desired during his schooling days. "Honestly teach, two things. Someone you can learn from easily and someone who actually gives a damn. Ya can't just have some boring old guy that drones on about the same stuff he's taught for fifty years, expecting you to remember everything, but never putting any effort in himself. That was what the guy I had was like, everyone had to put twice the work in they would've normally had to pass and it was stupid! I wouldn't do that ya hear? I'd make a class memorable, that way it's easy to learn from."

Principal Kahananui just smiled and said, "go on," in response. He wondered if she remembered the bastard he was referring to and if he had been fired yet.

"Now," he continued, "about giving a damn. A teacher's gotta care about who he's teaching or what's the point in doing it in the first place? Kids have got all sorts of troubles, a lot of them don't talk about it and those troubles stick with 'em. If at least one person in their life cares then that can really help 'em through it."

The principal nodded. "And help them regain focus on their work," she added.

Guzma paused for a split second at that response. "Yes. That's exactly what I was going for," he stated. His thoughts contradicted that statement, but he wasn't going to let her know that.

"Hmm alright, alright," she added whilst fiddling with her pen in thought. "So, if I walked into your class during an outstanding lesson, what would I see and hear?"

Oh this question was a piece of cake, he smiled, "nothing, no one would be in there. We'd be outside doing some hands on stuff."

"So you like a practical approach?" she queried, the smile on her face remaining consistent.

"Well you can't learn to battle Pokémon just reading about it. You can't learn how to apply potions and sprays right, how to use items or how to throw a damn Poké ball from a book. You need to practise that stuff. Doing that means the kid's Pokémon will learn as well. They're a team and if one of them sucks then the both of them do. They need to learn to work together. They can't exactly do that if the thing's cooped up inside a Poké ball all day," explained Guzma.

She seemed interested in what he was saying; at least he hoped she was. "True, true," commented the principal, seemingly agreeing with him. "So what made you decide to become a teacher in the first place? I thought you wanted to become a captain?" she asked curiously.

He leaned back in his chair and shifted his eyes downwards, "gonna be honest with ya here, I just saw the flier. I thought that since I'm one of the best when it comes to Pokémon battling and I know how to deal with large groups of kids that I'd be good at it," he admitted reluctantly, purposely ignoring her mention of his life-long aspiration. He would rather she didn't know that this was purely an impulse driven decision.

"You have experience with children?" she asked inquisitively, it seemed that her interested was piqued.

"Well, no. Older ones. Teenagers. Most of my… Gang members, were teenagers. So I think they count." The absolute last thing that he wanted to have to do was bring up Team Skull.

"So they weren't just running amuck out there?" she smirked with a slightly sarcastic tone.

"No. I ain't stupid, I can keep a group under control, it ain't that hard once ya know how. Anyway, yeah, I thought I'd be good at this and I know this school back to front so I came. Not too deep a reason, but it's a reason," he said defensively. He was annoyed at the suggestion that his former team was nothing but a disorganised mess. It was an organized mess.

Her smirk faded as she continued with her line of questioning, "so, looking at your resume I can see you clearly have a passion for Pokémon battling and competitions," she noted, lowering her voice as she remarked, "despite never winning any mind you." That snide comment managed to foul Guzma's mood even further; however, he decided to bury that feeling until the interview was over. He absolutely refused to have any kind of outburst here in front of her. "Regarding that, to you, what is the true meaning of a Pokémon battle? What do a trainer and their Pokémon have to gain from battling?"

This question prompted thoughts involving time spent with Golisopod and his other Pokémon, as well as what he had learnt on his trip with Hala. Thinking back to these memories calmed him down a little. He then thought about the question. Just over a month ago his answer would've focused entirely on completely crushing an opponent, then laughing while revelling in his triumph. Times had changed, however, and so had his viewpoint.

"To me, nowadays at least, it's about the relationship you have with the opponent and your own Pokémon. Ya gotta have respect for the other trainer. It doesn't really matter too much if they're better or worse than you, if you don't have any respect you're not gonna learn anything from it," admitted Guzma. The old man would've been proud to hear that.

The principal nodded in response, she clearly wanted to hear more. He couldn't tell what she was thinking and that unnerved him slightly. "With Pokémon though, battling helps the trainer form a stronger bond with them. Like…" he paused for a moment," can I bring out one of mine teach? So this all makes sense?"

"Sure." She smiled.

"You remember my Wimpod, don't you?"

"Very fondly, you had a lovely Pokémon."

"Take a look at him now," he said proudly as he took a Poké ball out from within his jacket. He released his Golisopod from its ball; the two meter tall, imposing bug Pokémon observed its surroundings then stretched its six clawed limbs. It seemed pleased to be out of its ball.

Principal Kahananui gawked at the Pokémon before her, for she had never seen a Golisopod this close before, they were quite uncommon. "That Pokémon was absolutely tiny. Even up until you left," she spoke quietly, stunned at the progress his once small cowardly Pokémon had made.

"This bad boy right here is the result of a lotta hard work. Not just as Pokémon and trainer, but as friends," he grinned while speaking; clearly he had immense pride in his favourite Pokémon. "If ya don't grow with your Pokémon then you don't stand a chance in any sort of battle," he looked up at his Golisopod and it returned his gaze. "The two of us are always gonna be a team, I want whoever I teach to have this too," he promised. He held his fist up to his Golisopod, it gently gave him a fist bump, clearly knowing the full significance of the gesture.

The principal's smile seemed genuine watching this display, "we'll move on now," she softly interjected.

Guzma seemed to snap back to reality at her comment and stammered, "yeah, of course, thanks partner." He put his Golisopod back inside its Poké ball, slipping it back within his jacket.

"Good good," she nodded in approval, "I just have one more question for you." Her tone suddenly became serious as she stared at him intensely, "despite that honestly touching display I can't ignore the fact that you're a known criminal Guzma. Why, after everything you have reportedly done and your infamous reputation, should I even give you a chance?"

His eyes widened, he had been expecting her to ask something along those lines. That expectation, however, did not soften the impact of that question in the slightest. He paused for a moment to decide how he should word his response.

"'Cause I don't want any kid to end up in the same position that I'm in ever again. Y'all on Melemele know what happened with me; I ran away from home at seventeen and started a gang. But it ain't that simple because one thing I've learnt, teach, is that kids just don't go bad for no reason. They're hurt, scared, lonely, hopeless. They're in some serious trouble or someone they love is instead," he responded while looking at her with a genuine expression. "I've met a lot of people like that and I can help stop that from happening to anyone here. I know there are some students from here that ran off and joined in the past few years, I've talked one on one with every single one of 'em. I want to stop anything like that from happening to any of these kids again, I really do," he answered as honestly as he could. So honestly that he even began to believe those words after he said them.

The principal's expression softened, "Guzma?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"When you were attending my school I will admit that I was critical of your tastes and the way you carried yourself. Despite that, however, your sudden disappearance seemed… out of character. Even for you. If what you're saying is indeed true, then why did you run away? What hurt you?"

That question seemed to shake him just a little. He looked away from her and quietly admitted, "I… Don't want to talk about that, teach. At least not now."

That answer hung in the air for a few moments, then she smiled empathetically, "well, I guess that concludes our interview then. I'll give you a call to let you know how you went tomorrow. Please, take some pokebeans," she held out a jar full of them to him.

He seemed resigned to himself now. "Uh, thank... For giving me a shot teach," he smiled, stood up and took a few from the jar, "seeya 'round."

"Have a good night, Guzma."

He left the office, gently closing the door behind him.

...

It was slightly after 10:00pm that same night. Asuka sat at home in her office, reading over the notes she had taken during today's interviews under the light of her lamp. Her office was small, yet had a cosy feeling. Art from former and current students lined the wall surrounding her desk and important documents were neatly organized in a bookcase to her left. Certificates and photos from her school's past were framed on the walls above her and a bouquet of purple irises sat in a vase on her desk. The air was silent, aside from the gentle snoring of her dog Pokémon coming from the lounge room. Her Arcanine, Granbull and Stoutland were her pride and joy; she would give the world for those three Pokémon.

She sipped her Roserade tea as she tried to think. Though she had done her absolute best to give each candidate equal consideration she found that she could not shake Guzma from her mind. Was it how he surprised her by showing up in the first place? The unique responses he gave to her questions? Or the fact that he was a former student of hers and a downright interesting one at that? To be honest it was likely a mixture of all three of those things. Nevertheless that interview had stuck in her brain and surprisingly for good reasons.

Asuka assumed that it would be a memorable encounter from the second he said he was there for the teaching position. She had thought, however, that after everything she had heard about him that he was going to make a fool of himself. Despite him not exactly looking or sounding the part his responses succeeded in surprising her and piquing her interest. Essentially she was reminded that Guzma is anything but stupid, he's just prone to making poorly thought out and impulsive decisions.

Her thoughts drifted back to nearly ten years ago when he attended the school. She remembered that he was an exceptionally bright boy with an astounding work ethic. He had extremely high standards for himself and spent many sleepless nights working on assignments and tasks until they were perfect. This had resulted in him developing insomnia, however, and by the sight of the tired blackness that had stained the skin under his eyes it seems that he has yet to recover.

The high standards he set for himself proved to be a double edged sword though. She remembered finding him at the school long into the afternoon, sitting on the staircase in tears. He was holding the midyear test results and a B+ was marked on the page. To her that was an effort anyone should be proud of. She even spotted him earlier congratulating his friends on receiving similar marks. When she asked him what the matter was he just shouted that she wouldn't understand and quickly stormed away. He sounded almost afraid; that was the first and last time she ever saw him cry.

That memory began to dampen her mood, so she turned to happier ones. As a child Guzma was very excitable, unruly and slightly rough with the other students. He was quite a hands on sort of person. Despite this he never acted like a bully towards other students, in fact he had a group of loyal friends. Looking out of the window during lunch she would always see them laughing and dancing together loudly. She was never a fan of his music taste and fashion sense, particularly considering how it spread throughout his friend group. They were harmless though, she was just thankful they were good kids. One such friend of his was a colleague of hers, Professor Kukui. He and Guzma were inseparable throughout their childhood, but sadly drifted apart as teenagers. Kukui could not provide much of an answer as to why when she quizzed him on their falling out. It seemed that even he wasn't sure about what happened. He just stated that at around fifteen years old Guzma began to isolate himself from everyone. It was still unknown to her why he chose to be alone for the next two years, up until he disappeared.

Guzma's determination was what stuck out to her the most during those years. When he set his mind on something he would give it his 200%; whether that was a competition, a personal goal or school related tasks. This trait resulted in him becoming increasingly competitive throughout his school years, to the point where he would act uncharacteristically nasty towards competing trainers. She remembered calling him to her office more and more as he got older for insulting and putting down others when he won, and having outbursts when he lost.

After tonight, however, she had hoped that aspect of his personality had begun to change. Asuka was immensely surprised when he stated that respecting an opposing trainer and their Pokémon and learning from that experience was the meaning of a battle. Her pride and confidence in him welled inside her chest at that memory. Whether Guzma was lying to impress her or not, however, was difficult to discern. She doubted that he was a liar though; he was completely honest on the resume he handed her and sounded genuine throughout the entire interview. She remembered that Kahuna Hala had recently returned to Iki town after taking a trip with Guzma and made a mental note to contact him later tonight.

If there was one thing she was undoubtedly sure of though, it was that he truly loved his Pokémon. Bug types are an uncommon type to specialize in. Many people find them creepy and they can be extremely ineffective in battle at times, particularly when not raised right. Guzma was always respectful, encouraging and loving towards his Pokémon though; they were the one thing he didn't blow up at when he lost. Despite everything this had not changed. Asuka hoped that if she did decide to accept him that he passed that attitude and knowledge on raising Pokémon to his students. People that treat their Pokémon like objects managed to get under her skin more than anything else.

She thought back to her final question to him. His response made her think long after the interview was over. He knew what made kids "go bad" and seemingly how to prevent it. This was something she was admittedly unsure of herself. Though the other teachers frequently showed empathy and kindness towards certain problem students they almost never seemed to truly improve. Especially after Team Skull was established. Numerous teenagers dropped out of her school to join that gang and she could never work out why. Now the former leader of that group turns up in her office offering to help prevent that exact situation from happening again. She smirked at the irony of this situation. He even gave her the impression that he would be competent, if a little unconventional, as a teacher. Though if anything, hiring him would sully the reputation of her once proud school even further. But, not one other person that showed up could relate to those kinds of kids more than him. If he really could help restore the reputation of her school by helping those problem students, then that would be the tipping point that places him above the other candidates.

The issue was that she had no real idea if he really could help. She refused to take his word alone as confirmation. Thinking back however, she remembered that Hala was housing two former Team Skull lackeys. Their relationship to Guzma and their inside knowledge of the inner workings of Team Skull would be absolutely vital on top of the Kahuna's input. Asuka, at that moment, decided to base her decision on that phone call.

She retrieved her mobile phone from her pocket. Hala would be up at this time, it wasn't too late at night. She dialled his number and waited for him to pick up.

Hala answered the phone in just a few rings, "why hello there Asuka!"

His jolly demeanour always managed to put a smile on her face. "Well hello Hala. Have you been keeping well?" she asked.

"I am very well, thank you! Is something the matter?"

"No no not at all, I'm sorry if I'm bothering you, but if you have some spare time may I ask a few questions?"

"It is no trouble at all! I have just been taking it easy on this fine Alolan night."

"Well, I have a bit of an unusual situation going on right now. I thought I'd need your input on it."

"Mmmhmm?" He sounded interested.

"Guzma turned up at my office tonight to apply for the teaching position I advertised."

"Oh ho ho! Did he now?" She could hear a sense of pride in his voice.

"Yes. The surprising part is that I'm actually considering him."

"Well that's great news! You'd like to know a bit about him wouldn't you?"

"I just need some clarification on a few things he said to me."

"Do tell then."

"Well, this is the only answer he gave me that I am completely unsure about. One of the questions I had prepared was to do with the nature of Pokémon battling. I asked him what the true meaning of a battle was and I was astonished that he didn't immediately say something to do with victory or crushing an opponent. He spoke about having respect and learning from the experience."

Hala quickly interjected upon hearing that, "sounds like I left quite the impression on him, eh? He made some good progress on that trip I took with him."

"I thought that was the case. Well, hearing that, do you think he would've said that purely to impress me? Or does he actually believe those words? I'm sorry to sound doubtful but I've never known him to think that way."

Hala thought for a moment. "I believe that he is trying very hard to change his way of looking at things. It is difficult, considering he has spent the large majority of his life believing that having the power to destroy an opponent is the key to battle. But considering what I saw of him during our time away together I can safely say to you that he is not a liar."

This reassured Asuka greatly. "Ok… Ok that is comforting. But there is one other thing I need clarity on and sadly I can't get that information from you Hala. Though apparently you have two former Team Skull lackeys living with you right now, don't you?"

"You would like to speak to them wouldn't you?" I'll go get them for you! They should be happy to talk," he answered, sounding pleased.

"Thank you so much, Hala," she said gratefully.

As she waited she heard a knock on a door and muffled speaking for a few moments. Quickly afterwards the phone was passed on.

"Yo yo whaddup? Who's wantin' to talk to us of all people?" asked the first grunt. It sounded like the phone was put on loudspeaker. His voice was vaguely familiar to her.

"My name is Asuka Kahananui, how are you two tonight?"

"Oh no homie, it's the principal!" exclaimed the same grunt.

The second one then spoke, "daaaaang. Come on man, the last thing we need is a tongue lashin' from you miss!" They sounded worried.

After Asuka heard the both of them talk she knew exactly who these boys were. "Oh yes! I remember you two now, Adrian and Bailey wasn't it? Didn't you prefer to be called A and B? I haven't seen you two in quite some time. You used to run around Melemele a lot after dropping out of my school. Apparently you both took a liking to Ilima's Pokémon didn't you?"

"Yo go easy on us miss! We ain't about that life no more!" A retorted.

"Luckily for you both I didn't call to chastise you. I actually need to ask you some questions about Team Skull," she explained.

"Hey! Even if we aren't a part a that no more we ain't sellin' out our homies to you!" B exclaimed defensively.

"Yeah that'd be straight nasty," A added.

Asuka groaned in frustration, "i'm not asking about them." She then quickly decided to be a little softer on them, "actually, I want to know about you two. What have you boys been up to since your gang was disbanded?"

This prompted a much more positive reaction from B almost immediately, "well we're being trained up somethin' fierce by the Kahuna! A and I got nothin' else to do yo."

"Our old Team Skull is done-zo, so we're gettin' strong enough to help out anyone in need of rescue! Y'all can call us Team Reskull!" A chimed in.

"Fo' sure. One day y'all will see that skull logo and be filled with hope 'stead-a fear. 'Cuz that means Team Reskull is here!" The boys were clearly having fun trying to rhyme some sort of catch phrase.

Asuka chuckled. "That's a very admirable goal you two have there! What inspired you both?"

"Team Skull, straight up miss." A confessed confidently.

"Oh? Interesting…" Now they were beginning to get somewhere. "What about your old gang inspired you to want to make this new team?"

"Aw man this is gonna sound real bad, but we miss it yo," admitted A.

B then quickly cut in, "But not that whole crime part! The vibe, the feeling of Team Skull. There was this real accepting nature 'bout it and it was fun!"

"We made a lotta friends there too. I felt good about myself when I was with my homies."

"We felt at home for the first time in forever miss. I don't wanna give that up! So we're makin' a new team, same vibes, different goals."

"It's gonna be absolutely ballin, just you wait!"

"I don't doubt that it will be," Asuka smiled. So that gang apparently had a positive impact on their lives. To hear that was one of the last things she expected. "Now, I'm curious. What did you think of your old boss Guzma? How did he run things?"

"Y'all wanna know about our boi? Why?" A sounded puzzled.

"He came in to apply for a job I'm offering, so if you actually want to help your old boss you should be as honest with me as possible."

"Whaaaaaat?! Did'ja hear that B? Guzma's in town!"

"Damn right, whadaya wanna know? Anythin' to help our main man out," B insisted.

The excitement in their voices caused Asuka to grin slightly to herself. He wasn't even their leader anymore and they were still willing to help him. That was quite a good sign. "I want to know how he ran the show. What was he like as a leader? What did you think of him?"

B replied, "gotta be honest, the team was all over the place sometimes cuz we were on three different islands. But Guzma and Plumeria kept us all in check. Big Sis Plumeria always knew what to say, she's awesome man!"

"Yes yes, but what about Guzma? What was he like?" Asuka insisted.

"Well, he was pretty cool most'a the time, could talk to him 'bout nearly anything. If ya made him angry though, oh man, get ready for a shit-show," explained A.

"Yeah ask any one of us grunts and we'd all tell ya the same! We'd do anythin' for him! But he's damn scary when mad."

This was beginning to sound familiar to Asuka. "What do you mean scary?"

"Hey we don't want to sell our boy short! We ain't afraid of him! He never hurt us or anythin'!" A spoke up defensively.

B added, "yeah he'd just yell and break stuff, man he can be loud though."

Those responses began to confuse Asuka, "I… Don't think I understand? Did you do his dirty work because you didn't want to make him angry?"

A quickly answered, "no miss! We wanted to make him proud! He was real good to us and our homies. Always lookin' out for us. Could be pretty fun too! He'd put together a lot of cool shit in our down time."

"Hell yeah! I'm no good at battlin' but I'd own at those Wii-U tournaments!"

"I never went in the battling competition cuz it'd always come down to Guzma and big sis. Hella boring for me knowing that was always how it ended. But those dance-offs, oh man! My money was always on that grunt with the Oricorio, he was nuts!"

There was a small silence as they chuckled to themselves. They still hadn't answered her question. She was beginning to grow frustrated, but before she could cut in B spoke.

"Aw dang man, I think we just got hella sidetracked."

"Ok we gotta be more clear now homie. We're tryin' to say that he was real chill when there was nothin' to do, but got real serious when work was involved."

"Yeah damn, he'd barely sleep until whatever it was we had to do was done and done well yo. Everythin' was planned out to the tee. He'd really only get mad at us if we messed it up somehow."

"I think I understand a little more now…"Asuka resigned to the assumption that she may never get a straight answer. She decided to ask them something else, "so why did you both join in the first place? I thought you boys lived with your mother in the city?"

She sensed that something was wrong when the sound of their restless fidgeting disappeared.

"Um… Miss… I guess you don't know but… Mom passed on a while ago…" B quietly informed her.

Asuka's eyes widened. "Oh… I am so sorry…" Though she had never known their mother, she could not help but feel a stabbing pain of sadness in her gut.

B began to slowly continue, "we had the house and everythin' she'd left us. But… We had nothin' left. Barely came home most nights, it felt so empty without her. We ended up making some bad friends, let all that hurt out in bad ways. One night a girl caught us taggin' the wall behind the shops. This was about two years back. She was wearin' real weird shit and had bright pink hair. We were real angry kids back then, tried to slam her in a battle but my Zubat couldn't take it, neither could A's Drowzee."

A began to murmer, "even though we couldn't beat her, she invited us to check out Team Skull. She was scoutin' for new recruits. Awww man, lookin' back that was dumb of us. We got rid of that house with everythin' in it and packed it up to Po town. We shoulda kept the place, it would've more hurt to keep it at the time but now we got nowhere to go but Hala's."

"We can't undo any of that A, but I kinda don't regret it. When we got to Po town it was kinda surreal though. I thought everyone was gonna be hardcore just from the look of the place. It was mad freaky. But, they were all kinda like us. Got troubles or had nowhere else to go.

"Yeah man, bunch of 'em were just rebels, but some of our homies… How they ended up there was awful…"

"We ain't gonna talk about that though, we're talkin' 'bout us. I thought we weren't gonna get in to be honest."

"Oh yeah I'm hella bad at battles, the boss whooped us when we first met 'im. But then he just laughed and said we're in. I was like 'whaaaaat? He's givin' _us_ a shot?' From then on I wanted to prove to 'im that wasn't a mistake," A recounted. He was beginning to perk up again.

"Hey, can I tell ya somethin' teach? If you don't rat us out to the cops?"

Asuka reassured B, "this is an authority free call. You don't need to worry about that at all."

"Aww sweet," he sounded relieved. "Well, I remember I got my name drawn to lead a small team. Goal was to nab some Pokémon from a couple a real strong trainers, not sayin' who though. But I managed to pull everyone together and we actually did it! _I_ got my team to pull that off! _Me!_ We handed the Pokémon over and got a cool congrats from the boss. But, when we were leaving he went up behind me. He patted me on the back and…" he began to sound choked up, "he said he was proud of me, man. That I did great. I haven't had someone I look up to say that to me in years. He made me feel like I was worth a damn. That was the best moment I had in that team, I swear. Now I wanna go off and make somethin' similar, prove to everyone in Alola that we can do somethin' awesome. It's real cheesy but that inspired me yo. He's got some issues but he's a great guy miss, I ain't lyin' when I say that."

A interjected, "'Cuz of 'im we know what we wanna do now. A lot of our homies are chasin' their newfound dreams now. Miss, just you wait until Team Reskull is runnin' around Alola! We'll do so great that we'll even put the damn police outta commission!

Asuka couldn't help but chuckle, "I look forward to when that becomes a reality, keep working at it boys."

"Damn straight we will. Anythin' else you wanna ask miss?" B sounded much more open now, however, Asuka had heard all that she needed to.

"No, you've given me quite enough information. Thank you both for your time, especially since it's so late. Give Hala my regards," She said sweetly.

"Sure will yo. Goodnight!"

"Yeah, goodnight miss!"

Asuka hung up the phone and took a sip of her tea. She had reached her decision.


	3. Chapter 3: Against All Odds

**Author's note: Just a short chapter as it is Christmas Eve and i have been spending a lot of time with family. Happy holidays everyone, I hope you enjoy yourselves!**

Early the next morning Guzma was lying in bed; his face was buried in his pillow. He nursed a hangover whilst mulling over the previous night's utter _embarrassment._ What was he thinking? That the principal would _actually consider_ _him_ for the position? What a joke. He regretted not realizing that before he attended the interview and humiliated the hell out of himself. He was a failure, criminal, an absolute waste of space and she knew it too. Like hell a proud woman like Asuka would think "hey, Melemele's Number One Disappointment might turn out be a great battle teacher!" He wished this bed would swallow him up, along with all his mistakes.

He turned his head at the sound of a soft knock at his door.

"Guzma! Son, can you come here please?" His mother asked.

What the hell did she want? His mother knew that he didn't like to be disturbed when he was in his room. He sat up and ran a hand through his messy white hair, man did his head hurt. He stood up, nearly knocking over a bottle of his favourite whiskey with his foot. He stretched as he slowly walked towards the bedroom door. The sunlight streaming through the blinds pierced his eyes, causing him to wince. He opened the door just a crack and looked down at her.

Guzma was a little over a head taller than his mother, even while slouching. She was up early and completely ready for the day whilst her son was still in his sleepwear; an old singlet and boxer shorts. He likely looked as terrible as he felt. She was holding the home phone. "There's a lady on the line for you sweetie, it sounds like an important call," she smiled up at him.

Sweetie... That only sullied his mood further, he absolutely hated when she treated him like a child. "Thanks mom, I'll take it," he said tiredly. He reached his hand through the doorway; it was probably Asuka calling him to let him know that he "wasn't right for the position." Of course he wasn't. She passed him the phone and he closed the door gently. It took a lot of restraint to not slam it in her face, he was in a horrible mood, but he did not want to frighten his mother.

Guzma slumped down onto his bed and sat up straight. He put on the best, most awake voice he possibly could and put the phone to his ear, "whaddup? It's ya boy." Shit, he was too accustomed to answering that way.

There was a giggle from the other end of the line. "Good morning Guzma, it's Asuka. I'm assuming you've guessed why I've called you?" She sounded oddly happy.

"Yep… Lay it on me, teach," he murmured whilst mentally bracing himself.

Asuka cleared her voice. "Well, I am amazed to be saying this, but congratulations! You've been chosen as the Melemele Pokémon School's battle instructor! I am proud to welcome you aboard our team!"

She paused, waiting to see if he would reply. Instead there was a lengthy silence whilst Guzma stared absently at the wall in front of him, his mouth slightly agape.

"Guzma…? Are you there?"

He quickly stuttered, "Y…yeah. I heard you right, didn't I teach?" He was in absolute shock.

"Well you sound just as surprised as I am! Congratulations are in order 'battle teacher Guzma'", she chuckled at that title. "Now, you start next week Monday. I have the curriculum right here; you'll need to come collect that post-haste. It honestly just outlines exactly what needs to be done and by when. I also have another guidebook prepared for you that basically covers all of your responsibilities in this position as you have no formal experience. Not to worry though, this isn't the first time I've hired a Pokémon trainer for this position, you should be fine. Anyway, how are you feeling about all of this? You're oddly quiet."

Guzma was standing up now, he had completely forgotten about his hangover. She heard him begin to chuckle and then suddenly burst out in joyous laughter. He quickly calmed himself down, "I… You have _no idea_ how thankful I am for this, teach! Are you sure? You're not pullin' my leg are ya?"

"Yes I am sure! You have my confidence Guzma."

Those words made him grin from ear to ear, "you're not gonna regret this. I'm gonna be the best dang teacher y'all've ever had, just you watch me!"

"Oh I will be watching you," her voice grew quite cold, "because I know exactly what you're like. Now I don't care how you teach your class as long as I get results. However, if you hurt any of those children or are unable to keep your anger in check I will personally make sure the gate hits your rear on the way out. Am I clear?"

That stung, his grin faded, "yes, clear as day teach."

Her voice quickly returned to its usual light hearted tone, "good to hear! By the way, Guzma?"

"Yeah?"

"Call me Asuka, you're my colleague now, not my student."

"Yeah, of course!" he agreed. Pride welled up in his chest, in his mind he was her equal now.

"That's about all I have to say, I'll leave you to it now. Be sure to prepare thoroughly and leave a good first impression on your students!" she insisted.

"Oh I will, y'all don't gotta worry 'bout that Asuka, seeya soon!"

As soon as she hung up Guzma threw his fists up in the air and cried, "YES!" He cheered, laughed and punched the air ecstatically. This caused his previously forgotten headache to make a swift return; he winced and quieted himself down.

He let himself fall backwards onto his bed and placed his hands behind his head. This was the absolute best he had felt about himself in a long, long time. A genuinely happy and proud smile rested upon his face. What was he so worked up about before? Did he seriously think that he embarrassed himself? Pa-lease, he had that interview in the bag from the second he walked into Asuka's office. All he had to do was keep his anger in check and make sure the kids actually learn a thing or two. This was going to be an absolute cakewalk.

Now he just needed to think of a memorable first impression. What do to, what to do? A wide grin spread across his face as an idea came to him. Those little suckers weren't going to forget about their battle teacher anytime soon.


	4. Chapter 4: Introductions

**Author's Note: This chapter took me a fair bit of time to complete. It's hard to come up with twelve completely new original characters in such a short space of time, thanks to my special friend AdmiralJellybeans for helping me with that! The canon appearances of the kids in order of introduction can be found at supersquiddle . tumblr . com here:**

 **/post/155573790948/the-first-ten-of-the-twelve-kids-featured-in-my**

 **and here:**

 **/post/155573830943/the-final-two-kids-to-be-introduced-in-my** **.**

 **The site didn't let me post complete URLs. I hope you enjoy!**

…

It was Monday the next week; a young girl was sitting at her desk doodling absentmindedly on a piece of paper. She quickly grew bored, however, and decided to look around at the other students whilst playing with her curly orange hair shyly. Though it was everyone's first year at this school each student looked slightly older than her, she was only ten after all. Most of them were quietly minding their own business except for a single girl with a flower in her short brown hair; she was talking the ears off of the timid looking boy in front of her. He was holding a Pichu close to his chest. Was anyone even allowed to have their Pokémon out? She did not know, but she would've appreciated the embrace of her sweet little Igglybuff at that moment.

She looked at the rest of the classroom; it had that new empty feeling to it. The walls were mostly bare aside from a few posters showcasing information on Pokémon types and a map of the Alola region. There were twelve desks. At each desk sat a new classmate, except for the one in the front row beside the windows; she counted five boys and five other girls. Either this year's class was smaller than anticipated or someone was running late. Speaking of late, where the heck was the teacher? It was only a few minutes until class was supposed to start. All the previous ones she had arrived long before the bell. Though, she was aware that this guy was supposed to be a bit… Odd.

Principal Kahananui had already popped in quickly and given them a little talk about their new homeroom/battle teacher. Apparently he was a Pokémon trainer who was quite outgoing and liked to do things a little "differently". She also told them that they should have "nothing to be afraid of". What? Why would she be scared of a teacher? Was he strict? She hoped he wasn't. She didn't need anything else to be afraid of.

As she grew more impatient she turned to the boy sitting to her left, his cap was pulled down over his eyes and he had a distant look on his face. She gently poked his arm and spoke quietly, "hey excuse me, um, do you know when the new teacher is getting here?"

The boy shrugged. "Don't know. Don't care," he mumbled as he looked away.

She frowned, that was a bit rude, hopefully her other classmates weren't like that. As she turned to speak to the other boy sitting to her right she noticed that the whole class had became quiet. She paused, there was noise coming from down the hall. Was that… Music? As she tilted her head the entire class directed their attention to the door in confusion. The music was growing louder, it didn't sound like any kind of song she would listen to.

Just as she was about to ask the person next to her what was going on a tall man with crazy white hair strutted into the room. He was holding a small boom box on one shoulder and had a gaudy pair of bright yellow sunglasses on. The entire class watched with a stunned silence as he placed the boom box on the teacher's desk and shook something in his right hand. Wait, was that spray-paint?! He then turned and proceeded to graffiti his name onto the whiteboard in gold.

' !'

Guzma then turned on his heel to face the class, placed his foot on the chair and flicked his sunglasses up with a smug grin. He spread his arms out wide and exclaimed, "Greetings, naïve children! I've got an exciting announcement to make today! Your new battle teacher and the hardest guy around is here! That's right, it's ya boy, Guzma!" He folded his arms and let out a hearty yet inherently sinister laugh.

The whole class stared without a word, collectively feeling absolutely mortified as he switched the boombox off. No way, this had to be a joke. Some kind of elaborate prank on the principal's part. There was _no conceivable way_ that this guy was their teacher.

He smirked at them, "got no words eh? Well y'all better start talking soon, cuz we're gonna spend the next lesson getting to know each other."

He moved in front of his desk and sat on it, pulling a thin book and pen out of his jacket. "The real fun starts tomorrow," he grinned, "but for now I'm gonna call each one of y'all out and all you gotta do is tell me a little about yourself and your Pokémon. Not too hard I hope. Then you can ask anything you want about me, capiche?"

This was beginning to look less and less like a joke by the second. Who the heck was this guy? He looked like the kind of person that shouldn't even be allowed near a school, yet alone kids in general. Now the young girl was beginning to feel quite apprehensive towards this whole situation.

Guzma's grin faded when he received no response, "capiche?"

The class quickly nodded.

His smirk returned, "now the first of you little suckers is…" he looked at the open book, "Kavika!"

A young boy flinched. He was seated in the second row to the far left. His light blue eyes were wide as he slowly raised his hand. Aside from his eye colour he looked native Alolan and was wearing a simple red shirt and blue swimming shorts. His messy brown hair and a small, fairly new scar on his lip made him seem like the reckless type. "Here sir…" he timidly answered.

"What's with the scared look kid? I don't bite," he chuckled, "so, tell me a little bit about yourself."

Kavika looked around at the other students for a moment, everyone was watching him. "Um… Well… I'm, uh, twelve years old. I live in Hau'oli city with my dad and big sister. I have a Rockruff and my dad let me have our pet Growlithe as well. I… Uh, I'm not really sure about want to do when I'm an adult, so I thought coming here and doing the island challenge would help me choose…" he trailed off. He seemed a little embarrassed that he didn't have any set life goals yet.

Guzma leaned forward slightly to get a closer look at him; the boy was missing one of his front teeth as well. "What's with the scar?" he asked.

"Oh… Um… Well Pokémon rangers are pretty cool, and I was pretending to be one on the beach. I mostly just chuck Pyukumukus back into the water to rescue them, but I slipped on one and smashed my tooth on a rock, it split my lip," he explained, he seemed a bit more relaxed.

Guzma cringed, that wasn't a pretty sight to imagine. "That sucks kid. Don't be stupid next time." Kavika nodded in response, he still had a bit of a stunned look on his face after that absolutely amazing entrance. Though, judging by how quickly he had calmed down while talking to him, it was very likely that this boy had no idea who Guzma actually was. Good. That would make things much easier. He looked back at his roll and called out, "next up we have Amelia!"

A hand shot up into the air dead straight. She was sitting in front of Kavika, in the very front row beside the doorway. Her wavy, light brown hair complimented her pretty yellow dress nicely, along with her golden eyes. Her expression was fearless and almost official looking. "Present," she stated. Just from looking at her Guzma could tell that this girl would likely either be an absolute dream to work with, or completely insufferable.

She cut in before he could speak, "I actually have a question for you, teacher."

He raised an eyebrow at that statement. "Didn't I say that y'all can ask me stuff afterwards?" he reminded.

Her expression remained serious, "but this is important."

He was starting to get annoyed, "fine."

"Isn't spray painting school property illegal? If I'm not mistaken you just committed an act of vandalism in front of all of us," Amelia accused.

Guzma looked visibly irritated now. It looked to him that she was the latter, insufferable. "I ain't stupid, girl. That paint comes off with water, I was gonna clean it off," he explained.

"But-"

"Don't start!" he quickly interjected, "either you tell us about yourself or you shut it!"

She looked downright offended by his tone of voice, "fine," she sighed, "I am Amelia, I am eleven years old and my partner Pokémon is Cleffa. I live with my mother and father, my older brother is currently training Pokémon in the Johto region. I am passionate about rescuing and rehabilitating sick and injured Pokémon and when I am older I'm going to become a member of the Aether Foundation in order to achieve that goal."

She spoke quite professionally for such a young girl. Guzma folded his arms and closed his eyes, despite how much he already disliked her personality; he could not bring himself to tell her about the atrocities that the Aether Foundation had committed. Especially considering he had helped them commit said atrocities. "You got a real noble goal kid," he smirked and looked at her, "just don't let your big mouth get in the way of it."

Amelia's face went red and she looked away. At least pushing her buttons was a little fun. He looked at the rest of the class; they quickly averted any sort of eye contact. It seemed like they were all staring at him during that little exchange. He looked at his roll, "now we got, Hayley!" he exclaimed, hoping the next child was a little more bearable.

The small girl with thick blonde hair tied into a plait that was sitting almost directly in front of him shakily raised her hand. She was wearing a white sweater and long pants, clothes clearly too warm for the heat of Alola. She sounded like she was about to cry as she muttered a quiet, "h-here…"

Wow. Did this girl know who he was? The last clearly didn't, considering vandalism was the absolute last thing she would've brought up if she did. "Y'all ok kid?" he asked.

Hayley shook her head.

"Is it cuz I'm scary?"

She looked away, and then nodded.

He hunched over a little further, "do you know who I am?"

She leaned back slightly and shook her head.

He smiled softly towards her. This shouldn't be too hard; some of his grunts could be like this at times. "I'm your new teacher kid; it's my job to make sure y'all do great. That means I'm your new best friend, so you ain't got nothin' to be scared of," he reassured. It had been quite a long while since he had spoke even remotely softly, his own voice sounded almost alien to him.

Hayley looked at him and nodded; seems like she was coming around a little.

He smiled a bit wider, "so how old are you?"

"Eleven," she replied quietly.

"Where are you from? Your clothes aren't really suited to the Alolan sun kid."

"I just moved from Shinnoh… Um… C-can I say something?"

"Nothin's stopping you."

"You're in all black head to toe… You look even less suited than me, Mister Guzma…"

'Mister Guzma'. That made him chuckle slightly, "heh, you got a point, I guess. So what's your Pokémon?"

"I have a Silcoon. She's very pretty and I can't wait until she evolves," she smiled a little.

Guzma suddenly grinned widely, "hey would you look at that! You train bug types too kid!"

She flinched at his sudden, excited shouting.

"Show it to me after class why don'cha? I ain't ever seen a Silcoon in person before."

"Um… Sure…" she whispered.

"Don't you worry about a thing, Hayley. You and me, we're gonna be bug buddies," assured Guzma, whilst removing his sunglasses and placing them upon her head. This caused Hayley to freeze up and tremble in her seat.

"Alright, so, next kid is... Donnie!"

The boy sitting in the middle row to the far right sat up straight at the mention of his name and held his Pichu closer to his chest. Donnie then cautiously called out, "here!" He had a slightly timid look in his dark green eyes. His blonde hair was spiked up on the right side of his head and he was wearing a purple jacket.

"Well, um, guess I should start then," he began whilst adjusting his glasses, "I'm Donnie, you can see my partner Perry right here!" He then placed his pichu on his desk; it made a cute squeaking sound at the mention of its name. "I'm eleven, but when I'm a little older I'm going to beat the island challenge and become a trial captain! I was thinking being a psychic type captain would be awesome! " exclaimed Donnie, he now had a determined grin on his face. "Now that we have a Pokémon league as well I'm going to smash through the elite 4 with Perry and become the champion!" he cheered as Perry punched the air with its tiny fist.

It was clear that just the mention of his aspirations had caused Donnie to shift from quiet to outgoing in nearly an instant. A burning passion like that was refreshing these days, especially when many people were unsure about what they wanted to do in life. However, this sounded all too familiar to Guzma. Hence, he was not about to instil anymore false hope into this boy's head. He shrugged in response, "I don't really see where that's gonna get you in life kid, but it's a cool goal." Instead, he had another idea in mind, "I got a challenge for you though, now that you've mentioned the champion; I want you to try to become strong enough to defeat me."

Donnie tilted his head at the sight of Guzma's smirk. "Why? Are you strong sir?"

Guzma sat up straight with a grin and gestured to himself with his thumb, "I'm the best bug type trainer in all of Alola! If you can somehow beat me then Moon will be a cakewalk."

"Um, who's Moon?"

He hunched back over and looked away, "that's the champion's name. I've ran into her a few times, despite being one of the best out there I somehow haven't managed to top her skills yet," he begrudgingly admitted.

Donnie's eyes lit up in excitement, "challenge accepted then! If I can defeat you then I'll definitely know I'm strong enough to take her crown!"

This prompted an amused smirk from Guzma, until Donnie's Pichu drew its tiny finger across its neck. That… Was not normal. "Good luck kid. Just… Put your Pichu away," the look in its eyes was beginning to unnerve him. He looked back at his book as Donnie returned his Pokémon to its ball. "Ok then… Yu-"

Out of nowhere a boy burst through the classroom door and ran to the singular free desk situated in front of Donnie. He placed his unzipped bag on the desk and practically collapsed into the chair, he was out of breath and clearly exhausted. "I'm here… I'm here…" he breathed as the entire class gawked at him.

Guzma stared at him with wide eyes, the sudden entrance almost made him jump, "Who the hell are you?!"

The boy looked up, despite his darker native Alolan skin the shadows under his eyes were striking, along with his bright green eyes. His hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail and his orange shirt was clearly well worn along with his torn shorts. He took a moment to catch his breath, "I'm Kalino… Sorry I'm late… This is the right class, right?"

He glanced over the roll; this boy's name was at the very bottom. "Yeah, why are you late?" he asked, slightly annoyed.

"Couldn't get out the house until a few minutes ago… Sorry... I'm not in trouble right?"

Guzma looked him up and down. This boy was absolutely exhausted; he had clearly done a hundred mile dash just to get here. A pair of eyes stared at him from inside Kalino's open bag; did he seriously not have enough time to put his Pokémon in its ball? He folded his arms and looked down at the boy "I'm in a good mood today, so imma let you off this time. This ain't gonna be a common occurance, is it?"

Kalino looked away, he spoke with a hint of shame in his voice, "I can't come any earlier and I have important things to do in the morning."

At least he was honest enough to admit that. Guzma thought to himself for a moment then looked back at him, "Then try to keep it under thirty minutes and don't burst into the damn class like that. Everyone's staring at 'cha kid.

Kalino looked around tiredly to see that indeed, everyone was staring. "Oh… Sorry guys."

"Since we're already talking, go ahead and tell us a bit about yourself."

He looked a bit unsure, "um, like what? Also what's with the spray-paint?" he asked, pointing at the whiteboard.

"That's my name, you missed the intro, your loss," he said, his lip curling into a smirk. "Just tell us what Pokémon y'all've got in your bag and a bit about what you want to do in life, if anything."

"Oh! Well I have a Meowth! He's really cool and I caught him when I found him going through our trash," said Kalino as his Alolan Meowth slinked out of his bag and stretched. He gently stroked the top of its head as he spoke, "I'm actually trying to get him to learn payday so we can get some easy money through Pokémon battles."

Guzma cocked an eyebrow. "Battling Pokémon ain't that easy kid," he remarked.

"I know. That's why I'm here!" he grinned, his posture was quite relaxed now that he had caught his breath. "You're a Pokémon trainer as well as a teacher, right?"

It looked like this boy had no idea who he was either, same as the last kid. This made things a lot easier for him, though he couldn't help but wonder why none of the kids he had called out knew of the name "Guzma". This thought only crossed his mind for a split second, however, as he folded his arms and gave Kalino a wide grin. "Only the best there is," he said smugly.

He imitated the gesture, "then you better make sure I become the best too!"

Guzma gave him a thumbs up. "Ya boy Guzma's gotcha covered."

Kalino gave him a thumbs up in return as the girl sitting beside Hayley, directly in front of Guzma, put her hand up. "You were going to call me out weren't you?" she asked, "I'm Yume." Surprisingly she sounded quite comfortable

He looked at her. "Oh yeah, sorry 'bout that, kid," he said. She was one of the taller children in the class and was quite clearly Kantonian. Her long, dark hair was pulled into a neat ponytail and she was wearing a loose pink tank top and shorts. What really stuck out to him, though, were her eyes. Her dark eyes appeared to constantly shift back and forth behind her glasses. Was she scanning his face really fast or something? Wait, no, she was doing it too consistently for that movement to be voluntary.

Yume spoke confidently, "well, I come from the outskirts of Melemele Island and I'm 11 years old. My partner Pokémon is a Bounsweet and right now I just want to learn to become a strong trainer and complete the island challenge. I'm going to make my moms and myself proud." She had a determined look on her face. "But one day I think I just want to settle down and be a Pokémon breeder; getting to play with baby Pokémon all day sounds fun and relaxing. Maybe when my Bounsweet is a Tsareena she can help me with that too," she suggested to herself.

Guzma's expression slowly grew more confused the longer he looked at her. He leaned in closer. "That's real cute and all… But what the heck is up with your eyes kid?" he asked.

"Oh, that…" Yume immediately became uncomfortable and looked away from him. "I have nystagmus, it makes my eyes move continuously," she explained, it seemed like she was embarrassed by it.

"Everything ain't a weird smudgy blur is it?" he asked whilst moving his hand back and forth in front of his face. If that were the case, this would prove to be an issue; he had absolutely no idea how to deal with something like that.

Yume put her hands up in front of her. "No no, I can see fine with my glasses on. Please don't doubt me before we even do anything Mister! I'm going to do great! I know it!" she cried out with desperation in her voice.

"Woah there, calm down." He had clearly struck a nerve. "I ain't doubting ya; I just wanted to know cuz it'd be hard to teach a kid that can't see anything," he explained.

Yume's face turned red with embarrassment and she looked away. "Sorry… I shouldn't have shouted," she mumbled.

"Don't beat yourself up about it kid, you're gonna do fine, trust me" he assured. Though he didn't like to admit it, he understood how she must be feeling. Self doubt was an absolute bitch to deal with. He began to silently hope that he could help her break that before it became absolutely crippling. For now though, he had to move on.

"Alright, so next up we got… Minnie!" Guzma called out.

Minnie hunched over a bit in her seat beside Kavika, oh great, it was her turn now. She nervously fiddled with her hair as she said, "here sir…"

Minnie had a cute round face and light brown eyes; she appeared to be the youngest in the class. Her striking orange hair was quite thick and poofy, the curls sat nicely on her shoulders. She was wearing a frilly flower patterned top and a denim skirt. There was a pencil positioned on her ear and bandaids all over her arms and legs.

"And well…" she began before trailing off. Ok, this shouldn't be too hard, he certainly was weird but he was being nice right now. All she had to do was tell him her Pokémon and what she wanted to do in life and then he'd leave her alone. No biggie. She regained her composure and looked at him. "I'm ten and I have a little Igglybuff as my partner Pokémon. I, um…" she said shyly as she averted eye contact. His gaze was quite intense by her standards. She continued, "I actually want to become a teacher when I grow up."

Hearing that prompted a grin from Guzma. "It ain't too hard kid, y'all should start taking notes then," he suggested.

No way. If there was one thing she knew it was that she would rather go swimming with a school of Tentacruel than conduct herself like he did. "Actually I'm not going to, because… Um… I'm not really that interested in this class," said Minnie.

He tilted his head and asked, "whaddaya mean?"

She grimaced; his colloquial way of speaking was going to drive her up the wall at some point. "I actually want to be an English teacher, I love books and stories and well," she hesitated, "I'm sort of here because I have to be… Sorry." She expected him to react badly to that information, but to her surprise he just shrugged.

"Everyone's got a different goal in life kid," he said. Guzma then suddenly became stern, "but that ain't no reason to not give it your all in my class, got that? None of y'all are gonna be failures! So don't start thinkin' you can take it easy."

Minnie snapped to attention at how loud he had become and stuttered, "y-yes sir!" This prompted some of the other kids to nod in response as well. He definitely knew how to command authority, if anything. She just silently hoped that he wasn't going to constantly act and dress like an overgrown teenage delinquent.

He relaxed a little, "good, cuz that'd make both you and me look bad, and I ain't havin' none of that. Alright, who've we got now?" He checked his roll. "Iolana!"

The girl behind Minnie in the back row raised her hand and waved with a casual, "mmhmm." She was leaning right back in her chair with a lollypop in her mouth. She had light brown eyes and olive skin, common features of native Alolan people. Her shoulder length hair was dyed a bright blonde and her fringe was swept to one side; she clearly needed a redye as there was some regrowth at the roots. She was wearing mid length shorts, a loose white tank top and an out of place woollen scarf, which was knitted using oceanic coloured yarn.

Guzma waited about thirty seconds, watching as the girl quietly sucked on her lollypop. The lack of a response annoyed him, "Gonna say somethin', kid?"

She took the lollypop out of her mouth. "I'd rather just sit back and watch the class freak out to be honest; you are one weird dude after all," she remarked with a cheeky smile.

Guzma felt himself slowly growing angry. If there was one thing that always got on his nerves without fail, it was a lack of respect. "Me? You're the one sittin' with a scarf on a hot summer's day," he retorted.

Iolana stifled a laugh, "ok I'm not gonna bring up the obvious because the cute girl at the front already did. But don't diss the scarf, man."

Guzma had already had enough of this by now, he felt the corner of his lip begin to curl upwards involuntarily. "Are you gonna say something productive or should I just move on?" he asked, whilst attempting not to snarl.

The girl just shrugged. "Sure, I'm Iolana and I'm twelve," she spoke with a confident smile, "I caught my Wingull about a week ago, so it's not a fully fledged partner Pokémon yet. For what I want to be, well, I'm going to be a doctor when I grow up. But not just any doctor. I'm going to be the one making new medicines. I mean, how awesome would it be if there were full heals and stuff for humans? Like, how have we cracked that for a million and one Pokémon and not for people? So that's what I'm gonna do."

That was an admiral goal, but Guzma was still visibly annoyed. "Drop the attitude and you just might make it. Kid."

"Drop your face and you just might not scare half the class. 'Boss'."

That comment, along with her knowing smirk, caused Guzma's eyes to widen. Now he understood. She knew exactly who he was and she was toying with him, knowing full well that he can't do anything about it. This was a big fat joke to her and that only angered him more. He snarled through gritted teeth, "I'm not your boss, kid. I'm your teacher."

All he got in return was a grin and a, "whatever you say."

He felt his knuckles grow white as he gripped the thin book he was holding. But, he quickly began to notice fearful, concerned stares from some of the other students. He shot Iolana a glare then took a deep breath to calm himself down. "We're moving on," he said as he glanced at the roll, "have we got a Jonothan in here?"

The boy seated behind Kavika in the back left corner put his hand up and waved a little. "Present, sir," he spoke nervously, looking quite apprehensive. He had brown skin and dark, kind eyes. His curly, textured hair was cut very short. He also looked very neat and was wearing an almost businesslike button-up light green shirt and trousers. This boy likely came from a wealthy family, but that didn't make how overdressed he was appear any less silly. He then began, "so, um, please just call me Jon. My partner Pokémon is a Stufful-"

He was quickly cut off by Guzma, "wait wait wait. Did you just say you have a Stufful?"

The look of sudden concern on Guzma's face confused him. "Uh, yeah…" he replied.

Guzma shook his head and muttered, "you can't be serious." He then looked up at Jon and asked "how did you manage to catch it without being pummelled into dust?"

Jon was beginning to look worried. "I didn't catch it actually; my parents gave it to me a little after we moved to Alola about a month ago," he explained.

Guzma was utterly stunned to hear that. "For real?! Two _adults_ thought giving a _child_ a damn _Stufful_ was a good idea?!" He looked at Jon in disbelief before speaking again, "all of you listen up, no one in here is to touch this kid's Pokémon, understand?!"

Jon looked around with wide eyes as the other kids nodded. "Wh-what?! Why?!"

"Come see me after class and I'll explain it to you personally." He didn't want to embarrass the boy anymore than he already had. After all, it wasn't his fault that his parents were either absolute morons or didn't give two shits about their child's safety. He continued, "anyway, the focus should be on you right now, not your Pokémon. Keep talkin'."

Jon blinked a bit and looked around before averting his eyes downwards. "Okay then," he agreed. "Well, my parents and I just moved to Alola from Unova. I'm just here to learn how to battle Pokémon and go to a normal school for once."

'Normal school', looks like he was a rich kid after all. Guzma smiled a bit, he was already feeling much calmer as this boy actually seemed like a nice person. "This ain't exactly gonna be normal with me as your teacher, kid." Jon looked disappointed at that, until Guzma piped up again, "it's gonna be better than normal, don't you worry."

He tilted his head and said, "it will be?"

"Yep, this is gonna be the best dang class you've ever taken."

Jon smiled stiffly, "I'll… Try to take your word for it then."

Guzma nodded and said, "cool, if there's anything that I'm not, it's a liar, kid." He smiled, prompting Jon to return the expression, albeit awkwardly. He looked back at his roll. "So now we've got… Keahi!"

A hand belonging to the girl sitting behind Donnie in the back right corner shot straight up into the air. She had a huge grin plastered on her face; there was nothing but excitement in her dark brown eyes. She had olive skin and was wearing a headband with a fake flower positioned on its left side. She was wearing a mid length brown and pink patterned dress with sneakers. None of these things stood out though, as Guzma was staring at the bright red boxing glove on her hand. completely perplexed. "Why are you wearing boxing gloves…?" he asked.

Keahi immediately responded, "because this is the battle class, teacher! And I am ready to FIGHT!"

Guzma snorted and burst out laughing at that comment, slapping his knee as he cracked up. He shook his head as he chuckled, "y'all ain't jumpin' in the ring and knockin' out a bunch of Pokémon yourself kiddo!"

"Well that would be heaps of fun! I wrestle with Makuhita all the time! There should seriously be a Pokémon league where humans and Pokémon fight each other. That would be awesome!"

That comment prompted flashbacks to Guzma's childhood, specifically to memories of a young Kukui wrestling his Pokémon and allowing them to use their moves on him. The crazy bastard hadn't even grown out of that yet. He shook his head at her. "That is hella dangerous and the Pokémon would win every time. That's the exact opposite of awesome Keahi," he said. Despite his discouragement he was indeed amused by her suggestion.

"Well I'm still going to do it anyway even if a league like that doesn't get made, because I'm going to grow up to be the strongest trainer in all of Alola! Both me and my Pokémon will be the absolute best and we'll dominate the battle royal together! I just need to do this class because I can fight myself but I don't know how to use Pokémon to fight yet! Then when that's done I'm going to become the Masked Royal's successor and he's going to be proud of me and take me as his student!" She was practically bouncing up and down in her seat. "And then we're going to best friends and everything in my life will be absolutely perfect and everyone is going to smile when they see the great 'Blazing Camellia' enter the ring! All of you just wait and see!"

Guzma had a big grin on his face just watching her, Keahi's boundless energy and passion was quite contagious. Though, in the back of his mind, he could not help but think to himself 'Oh god, she's a Kukui fangirl'. Kukui being the Masked Royal's secret identity was Alola's worst kept secret, Guzma knew that rage inducing grin of his anywhere. He wasn't going to discourage her from liking him though; he just silently hoped that she wouldn't bring him up constantly. That would get very annoying very fast. But, he was at least going to try and stop her from emulating one of his more dangerous hobbies.

"Gotta say, you've got drive kid. Nice to see a little passion every now and again. Just don't go out brawling wild Pokémon and getting yourself hurt, that ain't smart."

"It's fun though!"

"It's not fun when you've made the same mistake as a kid. The Pinsir I'd been trying to catch that way for three days snapped my damn arm!" A few of the kids chuckled at that, including Keahi.

"I just won't fight those Pokémon then!"

This was going to take a while; there was no way he was going to convince her to stop in just one conversion. Instead he decided that he was going to coax her out of it over a longer period of time. That would be a smarter way to go about this. "Just… If you're going to do somethin' stupid then do it under my watch." He much preferred that she tried to fight any Pokémon with him around, that way he could make sure she didn't try to punch out a Bewear or do something equally dumb.

"Sounds fair!" The smile had yet to leave her face.

"Alright then, moving on," he said. "Second to last kid is… Nathan!"

The boy sitting beside Keahi raised his hand and spoke, "hello." Nathan looked slightly older than most of the other kids, his black hair was spiked upwards and stood out in contrast to his pale skin. He was wearing a grey shirt with what appeared to be red Gyrados patterns and black track pants. He stared intently at Guzma with piercing orange eyes. His expression conveyed what looked like a mix of shock and pure malice. This kid… This kid knew exactly who he was and he clearly didn't like it.

Guzma decided to play it cool; Iolana simply caught him off guard earlier. He smiled, "how're you doing? Going to talk?"

The boy did not break his stare. "Yeah, I am," he spoke in an odd monotone, "I'm twelve, my partner Pokémon is a Mareanie. I found her by my house shortly after my family's pet Corsola disappeared. When I finish the year here I'm going to become a trial captain and then claim the title of Alola's champion. Who knows, I might even try to become a Kahuna one day. That's all, _sir_."

Guzma cocked an eyebrow. That was extremely brief. It didn't seem like Nathan had thought it through in the slightest considering how nonchalantly he spoke. He didn't even seem excited at all. Did this kid not know how any of this region's stupid customs work? It was either that or… Oh, so that's what was up. Nathan was doing his best to hide his aspirations from him; the bitterness that seeped into his voice at the end was very indicative of that. His expression hadn't changed, and neither had Guzma's. "Well damn, you're brief aren'cha?" he commented.

"Why would I tell the likes of _you_ anything specific?" he practically hissed.

This was getting annoying; the contempt this boy held for Guzma was clearly going to get in the way of teaching him anything. But that was a problem he would overcome later, he wanted to move on. The longer he returned the boy's gaze the more unsettling and provoking it became. "Cuz it helps me get to know y'all. Seems that's not what you want huh?" he asked with a shrug, "but fine, I'll humour you since you humoured me." Guzma then leaned over further and stared him in the eye. "Just don't you think about pulling any funny business, boy," he warned.

Nathan tilted his head, smiled just a little and replied with, "I have no idea what you mean."

"Good." He knew that answer was anything but genuine, but he didn't care. Most of the other students now looked at them both with puzzled expressions. All he wanted to do now was move onto the last kid; he didn't want to continue this conversation and risk blowing up at a student. "Ok… So last up we've got Curtis!"

The boy sitting behind Hayley raised his hand carelessly. He was wearing a faded green t-shirt, jeans and a red and white cap. He had bright blue eyes, a myriad of freckles across his cheeks and mid length blonde hair that messily hung from under his cap. He seemed to be staring off into space with his head resting in his other hand. Curtis put his hand down after a few moments, he hadn't made eye contact once.

Now Guzma was visibly irritated, he had had enough bullshit from a few select individuals today, he really didn't need more. "Something wrong? Meowth got your tongue?"

Curtis shrugged in response. "I just don't see the point to this. It's dumb," he stated. He had quite the foreign accent.

Guzma scowled. "And why's that, boy?" he growled.

"Who we are doesn't matter. It's your job to make sure we pass the year, that's it. I'm not playing your stupid introductory game." Curtis didn't even look at him.

"The hell's your problem?"

No response.

He spoke through gritted teeth, "well if you ain't gonna say anything about yourself then I'll do the talking. I know that accent; you're from Kalos aren't you?"

He received only a shrug in reply.

It was beginning to take a lot of willpower to not absolutely explode at this brat, at least the others talked. "Fine, if you're gonna be a pain then just tell me your damn Pokémon. I have to know that for the class," he tried to keep his voice low.

"Espurr"

"'The heck is an Espurr?"

He just rolled his eyes and said, "dunno, you're the teacher, you should know."

This kid. Oh this kid. Guzma's hands began to shake as his lips curved up into a downright hostile smile. "You better cut the crap soon or we're not going to have a fun time this year, boy," he warned.

Even after that, Curtis didn't even look at him.

Guzma's expression was flat out terrifying. He began to visualize ditching the book he was holding at the boy's stupid face. He then, however, spotted Hayley slowly pulling his sunnies down over her eyes and cowering down into her seat, she was whimpering. Shit. He closed his eyes tightly and rubbed them with his fingers, taking a deep breath and audibly exhaling.

"I'm only going to let this slide today," he sounded calmer now, "because this is a new start and I'm not going to blow this whole thing over some stuck up brat. If I were you I'd drop this act real damn fast, kid. Otherwise you and me ain't gonna have a very good year." There was no way he was about to let some stupid asshole provoke him into destroying this opportunity before it had even begun. When he opened his eyes he saw that the majority of the class looked relieved that he wasn't going to have an outburst. It was now extremely clear to Guzma, however, that his rage was something he desperately needed to keep a handle on.

Guzma spoke up after quelling his anger even further, "alright… That's everyone introduced, 'cept ya boy here. So, you squirts get to ask me anything you want. Go ahead, don't be scared," he said, whilst giving the class a forced smile in an attempt to reassure them. He dearly hoped that they weren't afraid now.

The first boy, Kavika, raised his hand. Thank god, one of the nice ones was first. He was clearly quite the confident type if he was willing to go first after _that_ shameful display. "Why do you look like you haven't slept in ten years? Are you wearing eyeshadow or something?" Despite asking quite seriously some of the other students couldn't help but giggle.

Guzma even cracked a smile. "No, I don't wear no friggin eyeshadow! I look like I haven't slept in ten years because I haven't. The bags under my eyes have bags of their own kid. Want a closer look?" He was now pulling the bottom eyelid of his left eye down slightly, it made him look a bit crazy.

Kavika slowly put his hands up in front of his chest, he looked weirded out. "I'm good… Thanks," he said.

Amelia, seeing that her teacher had calmed down to the point of joking around, put her hand up. "How old are you exactly? You don't look old enough to have a teaching degree," she commented.

"I'm twenty five, and I don't have one."

Amelia looked absolutely flabbergasted at that response. She stuttered, "wh-what?! Then how are you here in the first place?!"

"I'm a Pokémon trainer; I'm here to teach you to train Pokémon," he explained, "besides, the principal hires people like me a lot for this role." That statement was only half true. Sure, Asuka was known for hiring Pokémon trainers for this position, but had never employed anybody even remotely similar to Guzma before. He then added, "bet you wouldn't complain if someone like Professor Kukui was the one sitting where I am huh? He doesn't have a proper teaching degree either but I know he does this sorta thing anyway."

Amelia pouted angrily at his response and looked away. He had a point. Guzma smirked at that, though inside he was thankful that she didn't press him on how he knew that about Kukui.

Iolana was next to put her hand up. Oh here we go. He gave her a nod.

"The thrift store called, boss, they want their clothes back," she said with what was quite possibly the smuggest grin he had ever seen. Was she _seriously_ doing this after witnessing him nearly explode? Alright then. Fuck it. He was biting back.

"One," he put his finger up, "that ain't a question. And two," he put up another finger and smirked, "grandma called, she wants her tacky scarf back."

Iolana immediately sat up straight in her seat with an angry expression. "Hey! I told you not to diss the scarf!" she shouted.

Guzma pointed at her in response and shouted back, "then don't diss my outfit! My best friend made this jacket for me and I'm not gonna sit back while you drag her handiwork!"

For a split second Iolana had a look of understanding on her face, she then groaned, "fine, deal." She then said, "but I have an actual question, where'd you get the watch? If that's real then you really don't look like you can afford that."

"It was a gift. That's it," he stated. A gift from someone in Tapu Village who forgot to lock their window at night.

She raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "From who?"

"My mom," he blurted out.

Iolana then smiled. "Aww sweet, looks like the hardest guy around is a bit of a softie after all."

He began to tap his foot angrily as a few more kids giggled. One of the last things he wanted to hear today was his own quotes being parroted back at him. "I've had enough of you. Anyone else?"

This time Minnie slowly put her hand up. "Um… Are you a real teacher, sir?" she asked shyly.

Guzma narrowed his eyes, folded his arms, and sat up straight. Though he wasn't hunched anymore he somehow looked even more guarded. "What's that supposed to mean? I'm here aren't I? Don't tell me you're already getting cold feet and I haven't even taught a single lesson yet?"

Minnie appeared to panic slightly at that response, "no no no! Sorry it's just… you _really_ don't look like any kind of teacher I've seen before, ever. It's kind of jarring."

"Well I ain't like any teacher you've ever seen before."

Minnie looked downwards, she thought about how unusual he looked and sounded. Not to mention how his mood managed to sporadically flip-flop at the drop of a hat, because of that she was unable to pin down his usual demeanour. She flat out couldn't tell if he was fun and joking or angry and on edge most of the time. But, then again, she hadn't seen him actually teach a class yet. She decided to wait a while and see how things go. "I just hope that's a good thing…" she said.

He hunched back over slightly. "Have a little faith in me, alright?"

She began to play with her hair and nodded a little.

Kalino was next to raise his hand, he was still patting his Meowth. "So what's your partner Pokémon?" he asked curiously.

"I have the best damn Pokémon y'all could ever get your hands on, a Golisopod," he said proudly. A number of students looked around at each other, they seemed confused. Aside from Nathan who was taking notes, that couldn't be good. "What? Y'all _seriously_ don't know what a Golisopod is?"

The majority of them shook their head or muttered "nope". After thinking a little he supposed he couldn't blame them, Golisopod was a very rare Pokémon. In fact he had never met another trainer with one. "I'll bring him out later on then, this class is too cramped for him, gotta get him accustomed to y'all as well," he said. His prized Pokémon could get a little rough with people without meaning to sometimes. The last thing he wanted was for it to start manhandling children. "Also," he then added as he looked at Kalino, "could you put your Meowth away? Please?" That last word didn't exactly roll off of his tongue.

Kalino shifted a bit in his seat. "Um, he doesn't have a ball," he admitted.

Guzma looked at him puzzled. "What? How did you catch it then?"

"I sorta just picked him up; he's really lax like that," he explained while miming the action he described.

"Get a ball for it as soon as you can then."

"I'll try."

It looked like either this boy simply hadn't thought about getting his friend a ball yet, or he couldn't afford it. Guzma hoped it was the former; poke balls were some of the cheapest things you could buy. He then spotted Donnie with his hand up, "Yeah?"

"Can I have the spray-paint?" he asked.

Guzma stared at him, dumbfounded that he would even ask that. "Why, for the love of god, would I hand you a can of spraypaint?"

Donnie put a finger up before rummaging through his pockets. "Because…" he took an object out of his jacket before explaining, "I decorate Poke balls as a hobby! That gold would be perfect for Perry's ball!" He then threw the expanded ball to Guzma.

He caught it with ease and took a look at it, he raised an eyebrow. It was indeed an elegantly decorated Poke ball. This ball seemed to have been painted to resemble Melemele Meadow. The brush strokes were very fine and precise. "I gotta admit, you've got talent if you did this yourself. But I did say that the paint comes off with water, remember?"

Donnie just shrugged. "It's good practise."

Guzma thought to himself for a second, then threw both the ball and spray-paint to him. "I see one lick of sparkling gold on any of the city's walls and I'm coming for ya Donnie," he said with a smile.

Donnie balled his hand into a fist and whispered, "yes!" He put both items into his bag as Amelia stared with a mortified look on her face.

Nathan then raised his hand and asked, "what did you do before you got your job here?"

Keahi cheerfully added, "yeah! Did you mug people?! You look like the kind of guy that mugs people!"

He ignored Keahi's comment. That little shit, he knew damn well what he did. Guzma folded his arms and looked away. He needed to word this carefully. If he gave no response Nathan would probably answer for him, but flat out admitting that he was a crime boss to the ones who didn't know would likely destroy any semblance of faith they had in him for good. He looked back at Nathan and spoke slowly and carefully, "I ran a for-profit independent organization that specifically employed troubled kids, giving them a sense of purpose in life and goals to work towards."

Suddenly there was a huge snort and an almost maniacal laugh from outside the classroom door, causing Guzma to flinch.

Asuka entered the room nearly doubling over from laugher. She managed to pull herself together just enough to say, "is THAT what you're calling it now?!"

He stood up off the desk. "Come on teach! Don't embarrass me here!" She continued to laugh as he gave her a resigned look and asked, "you were right outside the door the entire time, weren't you?"

Asuka soon regained her composure and stook up straight with a smile on her face, "I was just making sure that things were going smoothly, it seems you're all acquainted with one another, and just in time too." The bell rung only a few moments later.

Nearly the entire class quickly got up and headed to the door. He put a hand on Hayley's head as she went to leave, causing her to freeze up in place; she was most definitely the smallest kid in the class. "Hey hey now, you've got my shades and you promised to show me your Silcoon, girlie," he reminded her as Jon walked up to them.

Hayley began to shake a little and stuttered, "O-oh… Yeah…" She took a poke ball out of a small travel purse and let her Pokémon out on top of the teacher's desk. The Pokémon blinked up at them.

Guzma leaned in to get a closer look and narrowed his eyes. "That ain't a Silcoon kid. It's a Cascoon," he corrected her, "but that ain't a problem at all; you'll just get a Dustox instead of a Beautifly."

Hayley looked unsure. "U-um… No… It's a Silcoon…" she said as she patted the purple Pokémon.

He cocked an eyebrow at her and asked, "are you the bug type specialist?"

She trembled and looked away from him. "B-but… My mom says it's a Silcoon…"

"Is your mom a bug type trainer?"

"We… Um… She has a Metapod…"

Guzma pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. "It's a damn Cascoon, alright? Its husk is purple, a Silcoon has a white husk," he explained as he gently plucked his sunglasses from her head and put them back onto his forehead.

Asuka, meanwhile, giggled at this quietly while leaning on the wall behind them.

Hayley then picked up her Pokémon, she huffed, it was quite heavy for her to hold. She looked at it unsurely; it blinked at her in response.

"Go on, get outta here kid. Just remember that if you treat that bug well it'll pay you back tenfold."

She nodded a little and exited the class, still carrying it.

It was then Jon's turn to approach Guzma. "Um… excuse me, but what's so bad about my Pokémon?" he asked. He looked a little intimidated, but mostly upset at the notion that something might be wrong with his beloved Pokémon.

"You've got the most dangerous Pokémon in the class outside that weird kid's Mareanie," he stated quite matter-of-factly.

Jon looked shocked to hear that. "But… it's so cute and gentle!"

He leaned right down towards the boy. "Yeah, with you it is! Those Pokémon hate being touched with a burning passion, if another kid in this class tries to pat it I can guarantee that it'd send them flying."

He backed away a bit, looking even more upset now. "So… I can't let it play with other Pokémon or any of my classmates?"

Guzma closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm sorry Jon; you're too inexperienced to deal with it if it flies off the handle. Don't be scared to bring it here though, neither of ya can learn if you just keep it in its ball. But, man…" he opened his eyes and looked at Jon with a stunned expression. "What the heck were you parents thinking when they got you that?!"

Jon averted eye contact, "I-I think they didn't know… It's a popular Pokémon, it's a little rare as well and it's cute…"

"Well they should've! And it's popular with adults, people that can handle the thing!" He let out a frustrated sigh and pointed at him. "You need to go and make sure that thing listens to every word you say, with no exceptions, got it?

The boy nodded, yet looked a bit ashamed. "Ok…"

Guzma sighed and spoke sympathetically, "don't give me that look, this ain't your fault Jon..." He then crouched down further so he was at eye level with the boy, placing his hands on his knees. He spoke a bit quieter, "you know… If you can manage to control that Pokémon at your age then you might just end up becoming the best damn trainer in the entire class."

Jon quickly looked up at him with wide eyes. "Really?! Are you serious?"

He nodded and grinned a little. "Yeah, really. I want you to out there and give me a reason to be proud of you."

The boy looked absolutely stunned at his words. "I… I will…" he promised, before blinking a bit and running out of the class with his belongings.

Guzma stood up straight, that was a little weird, Jon responded almost too well to that. He turned around at the sound of a slow clap from behind him. Asuka was leaning against the wall, looking at him with a smile.

She smirked, "well would you look at that, they like you at least a little."

"Oh shit… I forgot you were in here for a second."

She frowned. "Am I really that invisible Guzma?"

"Nah, you're just sneaky like that. Speaking of being shady as hell; I've got a couple of questions for ya." His expression became serious.

She looked at him, interested. "Hmm?"

"Well first up, this surprised the hell out of me; the entire class didn't collectively shit their pants at the sight of me. I thought at least most of 'em would know who I am, only two really seemed to though, I thought their parents would've at least warned 'em about me or somethin'." He looked quite puzzled.

Asuka looked away for a moment in thought before saying, "Well, despite the rise of Team Skull, you haven't gone anywhere near Melemele island in about eight years Guzma. They were probably taught to avoid your incompetent grunts rather than to watch out for you. Besides, most people don't exactly bring up the identity of gang bosses in regular conversation. Essentially if this school was located on your old stomping ground, Ula'ula Island, this introduction would've gone in a wildly different direction."

Guzma nodded and looked away, she did have a point. "Alright… Also, Asuka, I've been thinking a little and I just wanna know… Why the hell did you hire _me_?" he asked, "this is great and all, don't get me wrong, but I know you're real stuck up about this school's rep and all that so I doubt it was to do with my skills alone. You've got some other reason don'cha? Everybody who wants something to do with me lately does."

The woman let out a sign and smiled a little. "Well, it seems like you have me figured out. I do in fact have another reason…" She then frowned and begun to explain, "my school's reputation has been in the gutter for the past few years as older students have been dropping out left and right, some even left to join your little gang." She briefly shot him an accusatory glare. "Things haven't been looking up despite this school aiding in the training of Alola's first champion. Hence parents have been sending their kids to other islands to learn. "Apparently" it's my school's fault somehow that this has been happening, I know it isn't though. But since you apparently have an uncanny knack for getting through to troubled youth I decided to give you a shot at this. In short, I'm banking on you to help repair my school's reputation."

Guzma stared at her for a few seconds before bursting out laughing. "You… You can't be for real!" He continued to howl as Asuka shot him one hell of a dirty look. "You think your reputation's in the fucking gutter?! Well it's gonna be down the damn drain when word gets out that you hired me!" He was chuckling in absolute disbelief. No way. No fucking way was she serious about that. This was some kind of elaborate prank wasn't it?

"I'm not stupid Guzma! I know that!" Asuka snapped through gritted teeth. She poked him in the sternum hard, causing him to recoil a bit and quiet down. Her expression became more professional as she folded her arms. "But, sadly, in order to build a fancy new house you need to do a little bit of demolition work first."

Guzma hunched over with a frown and put his hands in his pockets, he looked away from her. He actually felt quite bad now. She was really putting everything on the line by doing this, wasn't she? She didn't deserve that, honestly. Only the most desperate people relied on him for help. "Sorry about that… For laughing…"

Asuka's expression softened, "I do truly hope that we can help each other out Guzma." She gave him a small smile, "I will admit, you didn't sound too bad this morning. I look forward to seeing how you actually teach."

Really? She didn't think he did badly? He smiled; it felt good to hear that. "Thanks. I already told ya that I'm not gonna let you down, teach."

Asuka gave his shoulder a firm pat. "Good, however…" She left the room and crouched down in the doorway. She walked back up to him and pushed a bucket into his arms, there was a brush and a bottle of soap inside. Asuka gave a smirk and before leaving the room said, "I just hope for your sake that you're right about that paint coming off with water."


	5. Chapter 5: How To Train Your 'Mon

It was now three days since Guzma had introduced himself to the class, and boy, had the past two days been boring. Though he dearly wanted to, he could not start teaching the kids to actually battle straight away. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, on the curriculum the first couple of lessons were supposed to be about what Pokémon actually are and how they are used in everyday society. How pointless could you get? Everybody knows what Pokémon are and literally no kid in his class, or anyone he knew at all, cared about how Digletts are used in mining or how Grimers lick the streets clean. He tried his best to make those lessons as entertaining as possible through drawing absolutely terrible pictures on the whiteboard to illustrate his points. However, despite his best efforts to make them interesting, he still found them quite boring to teach.

The second and most logical reason that he could not teach them yet was that it would've been irresponsible and dangerous of him to do so; especially considering how inexperienced they were as trainers. Sure, there were a lot of children who learnt to train their Pokémon through trial and error during their Island Challenge; he himself was one of them. But thinking back to the many mistakes he made while attempting to train his Pokémon made Guzma cringe at his own past stupidity. No. Locking his Wimpod inside an old shed with Kukui's Rufflet did not make it stronger and less wimpy. No. Making his Spinarak crawl across a thin branch over a large pond did not make it less afraid of water. Similar instances of unnecessary cruelty were common throughout his days as an amateur trainer. He knew better now, and his students were not going to make the same idiotic mistakes.

This train of thought had led to today's lesson. He had to get special permission from Asuka to conduct this class as it was not outlined on the curriculum anywhere. He didn't have to do this, but actually teaching the kids what he had in mind would make future lessons much less frustrating for everyone involved. He also felt relieved to be outside finally, now he could actually teach them the way he intended to.

Guzma was standing in the courtyard towards the front of his campus with his students; the ground under them was scuffed and worn after playing stage to hundreds of intense Pokémon battles. Every student was present, aside from Kalino, who was consistently late every day so far. Guzma was tapping his foot impatiently waiting for him to show up; he didn't want to start any demos with a kid missing. Meanwhile each student had been handed a pre prepared bag full of Poke beans and a Poke doll in each.

It wasn't long before a student put up their hand, it was Minnie. "Um, teacher? We've been sitting out here for ten minutes. What are we actually doing?" she asked, it looked like she was just as impatient as he is.

"We're gonna be doing somethin' a lil' special today," he said, before grumbling, "if Kalino can haul his rear over here any faster."

Donnie then chimed in, "why do we have to wait for him? Can't we just start already? We've started without him before."

"No. Not for this. This time is special and I gotta have every one of y'all here because this is a huge part of nearly everything I have to show ya. This lesson ain't even in the damn guide, I had to organize all this from scratch and I'll be damned if even one of y'all isn't here to see it!" he shouted, growing more restless by the second.

Amelia then tilted her head to see him better under her sun hat and asked, "couldn't you just show us in the class? What's so special that you had to yank us outside out of nowhere?"

Guzma shifted and looked at her, suddenly giving her a smug grin, "ah, glad you asked. What I'm teaching y'all today isn't actually special at all: how to train a Pokémon."

This prompted confused stares from most of the students until Iolana called out, "are you for real?! We all already know how to do that! Every single one of us has at least one Pokémon!"

This prompted nods of agreement from the other students until Guzma pointed at them and snapped, "no you don't! None of y'all know what the heck you're doing! Just because you own a Pokémon doesn't mean you know how to train one right!"

"If that's the case, then why wasn't it in your curriculum?" asked Nathan, who was looking up with his usual unsettling gaze, "wouldn't that mean it's so simple that we could work it out ourselves? Do you think we're stupid or something?"

Guzma felt his lip curl slightly at that accusation, "no I don't think you're stupid, but that sure was a damn stupid question," he then explained, "it ain't in the curriculum because it's supposed to be a given for most people. Pretty much everyone has at least one Pokémon these days for whatever reason, so there's this idiotic notion that training comes naturally. It doesn't, you need to learn how to do it properly if you want to make quick progress in battling. That's how you get all those pros that are what, eleven years old? Those lucky suckers are the ones that figured it out early. Hell, most people only work out how to do this crap the right way by the time they're ace trainers! So unless you wanna be fumblin' around for years wondering why you ain't making much progress then listen to what your boy has to say."

Nathan actually looked interested after that response, "so you actually want us to do well then?"

He looked baffled by that question, "isn't that obvious?! Are you expecting me to teach y'all garbage and then sit back and laugh all 'Muhaha! Success! Just ruined a generation of Melemele trainers in one fell swoop! Great job Guzma!' No! That makes me a failure too ya idiot!"

The boy paused to contemplate this information before taking out a small book and jotting down some notes. Guzma pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned in frustration. He then looked up to see Kalino sprint onto the school grounds, he waved, directing him to where they were. Kalino stopped and placed his hands on his knees when he reached the group, panting heavily. His Meowth was clinging to the outside of his bag; it looked quite dazed from the ride.

"Don't worry about putting your stuff away, just sit down and listen," said Guzma as he handed him a small plastic bag. Kalino simply nodded and sat down in reply; the small blue Pokémon on his back then crawled onto his lap and began to groom its messy fur.

Guzma folded his arms with a serious look; he almost looked professional now, almost. "Now, let's get down to business. I already told y'all that we're gonna be learning how to train a Pokémon today. If there's one day to actually listen to me, it's today, cuz all this pretty much underpins everything you do as a Pokémon trainer. Now what I'm gonna do is demonstrate what I want y'all to do and why, and then you gotta try and do it yourself, simple enough?"

The kids all gave him a nod. "Good," he said, "now get up and stand away from each other, 'bout a metre or two away should be enough." They all followed his instructions as he took an ultra ball out from his jacket. "Now, I got sort of an ulterior motive with this lesson too, I did promise I'd show y'all my Golispod didn't I?" he smirked, "besides, I gotta get him adjusted to kids anyway, he can get a little rough sometimes."

Guzma grinned when his goliath of a bug emerged from its ball, stretching its hooked arms and letting out a deep roar at the sight of the group of children. Most of the group took a step back or gasped at the sight of the menacing Pokémon, Donnie in particular retreated to the very back of the group with a terrified expression on his face. "Hey hey chill out, we ain't battling today, they're not a threat," he reassured his Golispod whilst patting the side of its shell. The creature lowered its arms and looked at him in response; despite its expressionless face it appeared to understand.

"Alright, now that he's calmed down does anyone wanna come up and pat him?"Guzma invited with a proud smile, he was more than happy to show off his favourite Pokémon. "Don't be scared if he picks you up as well, he does that sometimes, 'just means he likes you."

The majority of the class was now gazing at the creature in awe, even Hayley, who he honestly expected to begin crying at the sight of it. Donnie, however, was hiding behind Amelia in terror. Did he not like bug Pokémon, or was Golisopod in particular too much for him? Either way, he was about to call the poor kid up to the front before spotting Curtis out of the corner of his eye. He again, was looking off into the distance bored, seemingly uninterested in the amazing sight in front of him. Rage began to well up in Guzma's chest as he clenched his fists. How dare he.. _._ How dare he not even make the effort to look at his beloved Pokémon. He ignored the other kid's requests to see his Golisopod up close and shouted, "Curtis! Get over here!"

The blonde boy flinched at the sound of his name and looked at him. "What?! Why?!" he exclaimed with a confused look on his face.

"Because if you're not gonna pay attention and sit there daydreaming the whole time then I'm gonna make you pay attention! Show my Pokémon a little respect and get your behind over here right now!"

Curtis looked at the ground and shoved his hands into his pockets. He sauntered over to the giant Pokémon and then looked up at it unafraid, despite how imposing its presence was. Golispod returned his gaze, and leaned over for a closer look. Guzma eyed Curtis judgementally as the class held their breaths. The boy's expression slowly morphed into a curious one, he began to cautiously reach out to touch the creature's head. Golispod nudged its head into his palm and closed its eyes as he began to stroke it. For the first time in a long while, Curtis smiled. He looked back at the other students with a cheerful look in his eye as he scratched Golisopod's forehead.

The creature then let out a deep growl; it placed its large clawed front limbs under Curtis's arms and hoisted him up into the air. "H-hey! Put me down! Get it to put me down!" shrieked Curtis as he kicked the air. Golisopod nuzzled his neck affectionately.

Guzma let out a sinister laugh. "Nah, I think he's happy as he is!"

The giant bug began to walk around the area with its new friend. "Please get it to put me down! It keeps tasting me! It's not going to eat me is it?!" Curtis yelled. He had begun to panic.

"He ain't gonna eat 'cha! After all, he's got good taste!" Guzma put his hands on his hips and watched with a grin.

He felt a tug on his jacket and quickly glared, it was Amelia, she looked quite worried. "Sir… I think he's had enough…"

"Tch…" Guzma looked back at Curtis, who shrieked as his Golisopod pulled him into a hug. Hopefully she was right. He called out, "hey!"

Golisopod stopped moving and looked straight at him, still holding the trembling boy close.

"Are ya gonna actually pay attention to me now?!"

Curtis stuttered, "y-yes! I get it! I'm sorry!"

Guzma motioned for his Pokémon to put him down and it followed his instruction without question. "Good! Cuz from now on whoever decides to pull that crap gets called up to the front by me! Understand?!"

The class called out in agreement as Curtis rejoined the group; Golisopod stood back beside its trainer and looked at him.

Guzma's serious expression softened, he smiled and asked, "now, who else wants to come up and pat him? I'll make sure he doesn't pick anymore of y'all up."

A few students raised their hands in response. Yume, Kavika, Keahi, Nathan and Iolana were confident enough to meet the hulking creature up close under Guzma's careful watch. It was surprisingly affectionate and tender towards them. To his surprise Guzma didn't need to step in once, despite the bug often not knowing its own strength. But by now it was about twenty five minutes into the lesson; he had to actually get started.

"Alright alright that's enough, move back to where y'all were before and keep your eyes on me, we're actually gonna get started for real now," he said, everybody got into position. Some of the students, including Minnie and Amelia, took out notebooks and waited. "Hey! Put those away, you can take notes in your own time, just watch me," he said, clearly growing annoyed now.

The girls quickly complied as he turned to his Golisopod, bag in hand. Guzma turned to face them and explained, "alright, so, this is how you teach your Pokémon a thing or two. It's pretty simple but can be hard to get the hang of so listen close. Pokémon will work for rewards like treats or praise, everyone knows that, but there's a trick to it. Ya gotta give 'em the reward fast enough so they learn that if they do the thing they get the treat. That's where most people screw it up, they do it too slow so their Pokémon has no idea why it's getting the reward and learns nothin'. Y'all need to get that down to a fine art if you wanna make quick progress in training or just teachin' a Pokémon a trick or somethin'. It's especially important when trying to train wild or baby Pokémon, because they'll only do things for rewards. Pokémon that have been with their trainers for forever, like my Golisopod here, will pretty much do anything you want because they love ya and want to make you happy. Your baby Pokémon won't. Oh, another thing, you gotta work out what your Pokémon want from you too. Some Pokémon like treats, some like praise and pats and others just want to play. So when they do something y'all want, make sure to give 'em exactly what they like. Is that alright? Are y'all following me here?"

The group nodded, Jon then raised his hand and asked, "what if they do something wrong or do badly at something?"

Guzma suddenly snapped, "don't punish your damn Pokémon for doing bad at somethin'! All that does is make them not want to do it at all! If you want to ruin any kind of progress you make in training in an instant then go ahead, be my guest!"

Jon flinched and instinctively stepped back at his sudden aggressive tone, the rest of the class looked quite nervous now. Guzma's eyes widened and he gripped a tuft of his own hair in his hand tightly; he lowered his voice, "I'm sorry… That was uncalled for. I wasn't tryin' to tell ya off or nothing, it's just… never mind. Just don't punish your Pokémon for doing badly at something."

Jon then looked around at the rest of the class, stepped forward and asked, "sir… Are you ok?"

Guzma stood up straight, folded his arms and met the boy's eyes, he looked worried. "Yeah… I'm fine kid. Now to answer the other part of your question," he then turned back to the rest of the class and continued to explain, "punishing a Pokémon the right way is a lot harder than most people think it is as well. Only do it if they purposely do something bad, like… I dunno, rip your carpets up? Light your house on fire? Somethin' like that. Now again, speed is the key, especially with baby or wild Pokémon. Now, say you come home, you find your TV knocked over and there's glass everywhere and it's clear your new Pokémon did it. There's actually no point in tellin' them off for it. Sounds stupid, I know, but all you'll do is confuse it because you can't explain to it what it did wrong. They'll probably actually get it backwards and think that you finding the TV broken is what made you angry, not them smashing it. So unless your Pokémon just did the bad thing in front of you there's no point in scolding it, no matter how much better it makes you feel to do that. It flat out won't learn anythin' from it and it won't stop doing it and it'll keep making you angry. Does that answer your question, Jon?"

Jon slowly nodded, though inside the boy knew that was a lie. His question was no longer directed towards training Pokémon, but towards his teacher's emotional state. Why did a seemingly harmless question like that make him so upset? He mentally noted to choose his words carefully from now on and to ask Guzma about that at a later date, in private.

"Alright, cool. Now I'll give y'all a little demo and then you can try it yourself with your Pokémon. Just… What to teach…" he paced back and forth for a few seconds in thought, "I got it. Teach your Pokémon to fist bump you, if they don't got arms then teach 'em to head bump your hand. Aim to get them to do this."

Guzma held a closed fist out to his Golisopod, the Pokémon looked at his hand and pressed the flats of its claws against his hand, he grinned and quickly handed it a poke bean. The second the beast finished the treat it wrapped its large forearms around him in a hug, causing Guzma to recoil as it nuzzled its face against his cheek. The class giggled at the sight while he tried to push the bug off of him, muttering, "alright alright, later. Stop makin' a fool outta me."

Golisopod released its grip, causing him to stumble slightly. Guzma then turned towards the class and said, "ok, now get your Pokémon out and try to teach 'em that. Also try your best to direct them into doing what you want, give 'em a treat if they get close to what you want."

He watched as the class did what he said. There was peace for about two minutes until he noticed Iolana's Wingull begin to peck at her hands aggressively. Before he could tell her to get it under control the bird Pokémon shot into the sky and began swooping her with a screech. Iolana shrieked, got up and began running away from the Wingull. Guzma facepalmed as the gull began to pull on her purple scarf, tugging her backwards. He stormed up to her, she was cowering and covering her face as the Pokémon swooped her. "What the hell is going on?!"

"I don't know! Get it off of me!" she yelled as it tried to scratch her head with its tiny claws.

"No! It's your Pokémon! Get it under control! Grab the thing!"

Iolana looked up to see the Wingull diving at her face; she shot her arms out in front of her and grabbed it on its descent. She held it close to her chest as she pulled her Pokeball from her pocket and returned the struggling bird to it.

Guzma looked very angry now, he looked back at the class to see them staring, "focus on your own Pokémon! Not on this!" the rest of the students quickly resumed practising. He then turned back to Iolana, "I thought you said you've had the thing for two weeks, how come it's actin' like you caught it ten minutes ago?!"

She answered, "well I haven't had time to do much with it! I've only really had the chance to bring it out to feed it! I've been busy!"

He leaned down right in her face and spoke coldly, "that's a load of bull and you know it. You've had at least six hours after school every day, not to mention breaks and weekends. You've had plenty of time. To me it sounds like you've been lazy."

"I have it under control," Iolana glared up at him.

"That little display tells me the exact opposite. From now on you're sitting out until that Pokémon at the very least likes you. None of what I'm trying to teach you is gonna work unless the thing is willing to do what you say. Go sit, watch, and take notes," directed Guzma.

Iolana gritted her teeth, "fine, whatever you say, boss." She stormed over to the shade of the nearest tree and flopped down onto her backside, crossing her arms. He could guess that she likely felt embarrassed with herself; hopefully she took that as a lesson.

He stood up straight only to spot Hayley with her hand up looking at him; she was kneeling beside her Cascoon. He took a breath to calm himself down then casually strolled over to her. He squatted beside her and asked, "whaddup?"

She was holding a poke bean in her hand and had a puzzled look on her face. "U-um… Well, you see, my Cascoon can't move. I don't know if I'm teaching her anything and she can't eat the poke bean…"

He thought for a moment before speaking, "it can extend a bunch of spikes outwards, can't it?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Try teachin' it to do that, give it a nice scratch if it gets it right, ok?"

She looked at him and smiled, "ok, sounds good."

He smiled at her in return; it was reassuring to see that she was finally warming up to him.

He stood up and began watching over the other students as his Golisopod took some time to itself to meditate quietly. They were all trying their best, to varying levels of success. Jon was sitting off to the side away from the other students; he was the first to succeed in teaching his Stufful to give his fist a gentle bump. Guzma smiled, it looked like the boy had taken his advice from the other day. He gently ruffled Jon's curly hair as he passed by.

As he walked around he could see that Kavika, instead of teaching his Pokémon to fist bump, was making his Rockruff give him his paw. Yume's Bounsweet was rubbing it's tiny body against her closed fist for treats, she was smiling proudly at her Pokémon. Amelia had incorporated a clapping game into her teaching method. It appeared as though her Cleffa already knew the game quite well, but that she was adding the fist bump at the end as an extra move, clever. Minnie's Igglybuff was almost there, she was slowly edging the tiny Pokémon towards performing the entire action. He gave each of them gestures of praise as he passed by.

That was, however, the extent of the successes today. Kalino just couldn't motivate his Meowth to want to do anything; it just lied there trying to go to sleep. Figures, those stupid cats were some of the laziest Pokémon he had ever come across. He often used to spot Nanu's Meowths sleeping in the strangest places around Po town; oddly enough they didn't seem to mind the rain.

Nathan also had trouble getting his Mareanie to move, it simply stared at the Poke bean in his hand and drooled expectantly. He did attempt to help Nathan, but the child simply spat at him when he tried. Fine, fuck him then. He'll get help when he drops the stupid lone wolf act and actually reaches out to him.

Donnie's Pichu, rather than being lazy, was actively trying to get its paws the poke beans in any way other than a fist bump. It tried to out-manoeuvre him and swipe them whenever it got the chance.

Keahi's Makuhita definitely got the memo on what it needed to do very fast, but rather than giving a gentle fist bump it was throwing punches at its trainer. This was completely Keahi's fault, she was the one who taught it to be this rough and she needed to be the one to teach it to calm down for once. He reminded her of that quite sternly, with great emphasis being put on how this behaviour was a result of her constantly wrestling with it.

Curtis was initially having issues, but only because he didn't get the message that his strange cat-like Pokémon didn't want treats, but affection from its trainer. He began to make progress after learning that his Espurr enjoyed scratches behind the ear.

He did his best to offer any assistance he could, but refrained from teaching the kid's Pokémon himself. Overall, the lesson was quite productive for most of the students, aside from Iolana who sulked off to the side whilst taking notes. She was quite angry at herself as she was already behind everyone else; it was her responsibility to catch up on her own time.

Soon the lesson came to a conclusion; he reminded each of them to continue practising what he had taught at home, as this technique underpins all effective Pokémon training strategies. As everyone headed inside he spotted Asuka watching from the second floor window, she gave a quick wave then headed back into the room. She didn't immediately chastise him. That was a good sign. Guzma ran a hand through his hair, returned his Golisopod to its ball and smiled to himself; he actually managed to pull off a lesson he organized from the ground up, he felt proud. All he needed to do now was keep this up and absolutely, under any circumstances, not have another outburst like that. Even now the concern on Jon's face after his apology made him feel nauseous, he want anybody's pity, particularly coming from a child.

As he headed inside his feeling of pride resurfaced. He smiled at the thought of telling his mother about today, she'd be proud to hear that her son was actually beginning to pull himself together somewhat. He'd be happy to talk to her about it over dinner.


	6. Chapter 6: Pulling Punches

**Author's note: If any of you prefer reading fanfiction on Archive of Our Own the story is now up on that site as well! I hope you enjoy.**

The next morning Keahi sat at desk. Her head was in her hand and she was tapping her foot. It was the last day of the week and things weren't exactly going the way she thought they would. Yesterday's battle lesson, though a little quieter than she expected, was AWESOME. At least compared to what she was used to when it came to school. Sitting for over an hour in a cramped class for like, four times a day, was not her style. Getting to actually be outside and learn alongside her precious Maku Maku was a breath of fresh air and, in her opinion, so was their teacher. Sure he was weird, but good weird, like her! His Pokémon too, oh my god, she did not know that bug types could be so awesome and yet so cuddly at the same time. She could not wait for the day where she gets to battle that thing. Though, she wasn't sure if fighting types were very effective against bug types. Meh, it shouldn't matter too much, hit something hard enough and it's bound to fall over eventually.

But today; this was not what she planned for and she was honestly getting annoyed. The bell rung like, twenty minutes ago and the teacher still hadn't showed up. Like, what? She had even gotten dressed in her special battle gear in case they were going outside again. She looked down at her outfit, she was wearing a tight fitting black tank top and short blue shorts with white stripes down the sides. Her prized focus sash was tied around her waist, just in case things went wrong. But she got all dressed up for nothing now because he wasn't even there! Heck, Kalino had arrived here before him! _Kalino_! Though, the look on his face when he realized that he had arrived earlier than the teacher for once was absolutely priceless.

Keahi knocked her knees together as she looked around the class. She couldn't see everyone's faces as she sat right in the back corner beside the windows. But it looked like everyone else was either bored or annoyed as well. Amelia and Donnie had all their stuff organized and ready to go, but looked about ready to fall asleep. Minnie looked like she was going to have an aneurysm in around five minutes. Come on man, everyone else is frustrated too but you don't have to look like you're gonna deck the wall over it. Everyone else was talking to each other to distract themselves. It looked like Ionala and Jon were getting pretty chummy over the other side of the class. Well, it was more like Iolana just pressing him on how to get a Pokémon to like her. Really? Just be friends with it, it's not hard! Keahi then looked towards the front of the class. Aww cute, Hayley and Yume were talking to each other. Hayley was adorable and tiny; about a head shorter than Keahi. Though they weren't exactly friends yet she made a mental note to hurry up and make that happen ASAP. But sadly she always acted on edge around her, probably because her best friend was Nathan, and he made her nervous.

Keahi couldn't see why though, he's a great guy! Though she had only known him for the week they connected almost instantly after having lunch together. She suddenly sat up straight, no wonder she was so bored, she hadn't talked to him yet. She had been chatting with Donnie earlier and failed to notice him sit down beside her. Now she felt bad for not saying hello earlier. She simply drifted off into space after Donnie politely told her that he had a headache after a bad sleep and wanted to be left alone, for the fifth time.

Keahi turned to Nathan and quickly said, "oh my god I am SO sorry! I completely zoned out and didn't see you there!"

Nathan looked up from his sketchbook to face her; he gave her a kind smile. "It's alright; you looked kind of tired there so I just decided to do my own thing."

"No no I'm not tired! I'm just so booooooored," she groaned, "I thought we were gonna go outside today but the teacher isn't even here! He's never been late before, but even for being late this is ridiculous!"

Nathan flashed her a grin, the look in his eyes turned nasty, "honestly it'd be awesome if he just didn't turn up at all, ever. Who knows, maybe his stupid goliath bug crushed him in his sleep? That'd be funny."

Keahi glared at him and retorted, "don't be like that! That's a horrible thing to say and you know it!" This was the main thing that the two of them disagreed on. She in fact quite liked her new teacher; he on the other hand, despised him. He always became weird and nasty around Guzma and she didn't like that one bit. As a result she tended to avoid bringing him up in conversation and hence had not asked Nathan why he disliked him so much. Maybe he just hated adults? Some kids were weird like that.

Nathan shrugged in response and looked at her apologetically. He mumbled, "sorry… I didn't mean to piss you off."

Keahi he smiled warmly at him, "it's ok, thanks for saying sorry." She couldn't stay mad at him for long. But hmm, maybe it was time to ask him. His seemingly irrational hatred had left her quite confused and they were already on the topic. However, just as she opened her mouth to ask him about it she spied his sketchbook and gasped. "NO WAY!" she exclaimed, "did you draw that?!"

Nathan moved aside as Keahi shuffled her chair to his desk to get a better look at his drawing. He smiled and turned the book towards her; it was a drawing of him and his ideal Pokémon team as a band of masked vigilantes leaping over the Hau'oli city rooftops. The light of the moon illuminated their figures in the night. For his age he was surprisingly talented. "Yeah, pretty cool huh?" he commented with a smug smile.

"Oh my god I knew you liked superheros but I never knew that you drew stuff like they do with the comics! I draw sometimes too but I'm super super bad at it and I mostly just sketch flowers and stuff. I think I'll stick to flower arranging with grandma honestly because I'm actually good at that." Keahi paused for a moment, her eyes then widened. She placed her hands over her mouth and began to bob up and down in her seat.

Oh my, someone definitely had an idea. Nathan smirked and asked, "what's up? Got something to tell me Cammy?"

Keahi put her hands out in front of her and excitedly exclaimed, "I just had the world's BEST idea! Ok so now I know that we both have like alternate personas for heroes and fighters and stuff! So how about we go over to each other's houses and design them properly and learn how to sew and get fabric and we can make our costumes together! We can make little outfits for Maku Maku and Mareanie too it'll be so cute!"

Nathan suddenly grabbed her hands and grinned joyously. "That is literally the best idea I have ever heard in my entire life! Holy shit yeah let's do it!"

Keahi gently pulled a hand away and slapped his arm lightly. "Don't swear! It's rude!"

He chuckled, "sure. Hey, how about we-"

Nathan was suddenly interrupted by the sound of Guzma storming into the room. Both of the kids flinched at the noise and rushed back to their proper seats. They looked back to see him drop a backpack onto the front desk and start to go through it.

Just by looking at him Keahi could tell that something was up; his hair was much messier than usual and his normally clean clothes were stained with dirt. The most odd thing, however, was that he hadn't taken his stupidly large yellow shades off. Normally they rested on his forehead; they looked much more ornamental than functional after all. She glanced sideways at Nathan; he looked just as confused as she did.

Guzma took out some markers from his bag then turned to the class. Though before he could even open his mouth he was cut off by Minnie, she was standing now. "Why the heck are you so late?!" she yelled, her normally pale face was flushed red, "it's been nearly half an hour since class started and everyone has been so confused! Then you just waltz in here without a word like it's no big deal?!"

The man gritted his teeth, placed his hands on his hips and raised his voice, "well maybe I would've gotten a word in if you didn't start up outta nowhere! It don't matter why I'm late, what matters is that I'm here! So sit down, shut up and listen!"

Minnie's posture stiffened and she sat back down; she looked away whilst running her fingers through her hair. Damn, he wasn't in a good mood was he? But surprisingly Keahi had to stop herself from laughing during that little exchange; those stupid glasses of his dramatically lowered his intimidation factor, he looked so silly to her. Her smile faded, however, when Guzma turned to the board and begun writing. It looked like they were having an inside lesson today, great. Though she found all of his lessons to be entertaining, she doubted that this would top yesterday in the slightest.

Keahi turned, looked out of the window and began to watch a flock of Pikipek fly past. She thought she heard Guzma half-apologize for being late before starting the lesson, it looked like they were going over basic care and feeding. Literally everyone here already knew all of this, he knew that as well, but nevertheless Keahi tried to pay attention. However, other things occupied her thoughts, particularly the prospect of creating her costume with Nathan. A huge grin spread across her face as she daydreamed; quickly losing track of time as she attempted to doodle her design into the margin of her workbook.

Eventually the sound of Curtis dropping his pen caused her to look up. Oh wow, it had been thirty minutes; it felt like only five to her. Normally Guzma would say something funny or engaging throughout the lesson and some of her classmates would giggle, prompting her to pay attention before drifting off again. He had been oddly to the point this time though. He usually only did this when he was in a bad mood, but never usually for this long. He'd normally go back to being amusing within about ten minutes.

Keahi glanced sideways towards Nathan, he was quietly taking notes. She felt a bubble of excitement rise in her chest, surely talking to him just a little wouldn't hurt. She leant over and began to whisper to him, showing him her drawing while she was at it. He grinned at her in return and began to give her pointers on how to improve her art skills.

Due to this they did not notice Guzma stop speaking, or turn around to face them. "Hey!" he shouted.

The two of them flinched and Keahi quickly sat up straight. To her surprise, Guzma was still wearing his sunglasses.

"If y'all wanna slack off then do it quietly, don't force everyone else to listen to whatever the heck you're goin' on about," he told them sternly.

Keahi glanced at Nathan, he had that weird look on his face, it looked like she would have to answer, "yes, sorry teacher."

Before Guzma could turn back around though, Kavika raised his hand. Why would he need to ask a question? Wasn't this supposed to be simple stuff? Oh crap, did she miss something important? Keahi began to internally panic when Guzma nodded at the boy.

She turned to look at him, his eyes were wide. "I… Um… Teach-, I mean, Guzma?" he started.

Guzma folded his arms and said, "come on, spit it out, what's up?"

"Are you, um, ok? There's a big bruise right here…" Kavika touched the left side of his face. "Did you hurt yourself this morning?" he asked, his voice was laced with concern.

He seemed to stiffen a little at that question, but then quickly relaxed. "Yeah, ya caught me kid, but I didn't do it this mornin' mind you," he admitted with a smirk. Guzma then moved his glasses up onto their usual position upon his forehead. Keahi placed her hand over her mouth and stared in shock. His left eye was nearly swollen shut and was bruised a deep purple. She was no stranger to bruises and black eyes herself and knew exactly how painful they could be. Guzma, however, just seemed to be shrugging it off.

Yume was the first to break the class's stunned silence, "oh my god, are you ok?!"

"I'm alright, y'all don't gotta worry 'bout me, it doesn't hurt." That was a lie.

Iolana then spoke. "It looks so bad though, how the heck did that happen?" she asked. No quips today, she was clearly concerned about this as well.

Guzma then moved in front of his desk and grinned. He began to explain, "it's actually a pretty funny story ya see. Y'all know how I train bug Pokémon right? Well my Scizor was startin' to lag behind in battles and naturally I gotta get him back up to speed. So last night I cracked out a couple 'a boxing pads so he could give 'em the ol' one two." He proceeded to jab the air twice before continuing, "after a lil' while he got too into it and things got outta hand. Idiot punched me square in the eye, safe to say he got no damn beans after that stunt." A few of the students began to laugh, he chuckled along with them. "Don't be like me ya squirts, if you're gonna train your Pokémon that way then be real careful."

Kalino then chimed in after he stopped giggling, "ok that's pretty funny, but that still looks really horrible. Are you sure you're ok?"

"Yeah, I've had worse. The bruise'll be all gone in a week or two anyway. Now are y'all happy? Cuz we gotta get back to this. I still have a bunch to go over and I was hella late…" Guzma turned and resumed drawing on the whiteboard.

Keahi was staring in complete disbelief. She was gripping the edge of her desk, her knuckles were white. What. The. Fuck? They… They didn't believe that load of absolute bullshit, did they? She looked around at her classmates; they were all either focusing or giggling to themselves. Oh my god they did. Do none of them watch the TV? Scizor was a very popular Pokémon and was used countless times in the Battle Royal; just by watching it fight she could tell that its attack power was off the chart. If Guzma was really punched by one he would either be in the hospital or dead and if he really has one then he definitely knows that! Besides, he hates training Pokémon to battle by fighting them himself. He'd told her not to do that enough times for her to work that one out.

Her anger slowly fizzled away when she came to a realization. Something bad happened to him, didn't it? If he really did just do something stupid then he wouldn't have tried to hide it. He didn't want any of them to worry about him. Keahi started to feel sick to her stomach. This definitely had something to do with why he was late, but his eye was too swollen for it to have happened this morning, something happened last night. She needed to ask him about this, but she couldn't do it right now. He would probably just get defensive and angry and yell at her in front of everyone if she tried.

Keahi was unable to concentrate for the rest of the lesson; instead she played with her focus sash and pondered as to what could've happened to her teacher. Did somebody try to mug him on his way home and punched him? He still has his watch on though, maybe he fought them off? Maybe he just got into a fight? But he's a big scary looking dude; anybody who'd try to start something with him is just flat out stupid. So what happened then?

Before she knew it the bell had rung and everyone began to exit the room, Keahi turned to Nathan and said, "don't wait up for me, ok? I need to ask Guzma something."

Nathan furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm coming with you."

"No you're not. Wait for me outside. Please? This is private."

He looked away after seeing her serious expression and mumbled, "fine, I'll be waiting by your locker. But if you're not out in ten minutes then I'm coming back for you."

Keahi smiled at him. "Thanks, make that twenty ok? This might take a while."

Nathan sighed, "sure."

As he left the room Keahi approached Guzma, he had reclined back into his chair while looking at his phone. The chair was one of those wheelie ones; he was making it spin ever so slowly with his foot.

"Hey, teacher? Can I ask you something?"

Guzma looked up at her and cocked an eyebrow to the best of his ability. "You alright kid? You're actin' weird; you ain't bouncin' off the walls for once."

"Well, I'm…" She quickly put her things on his desk and exclaimed, "I'm worried about you! What happened to you?! What happened to your eye?!"

He groaned and replied, "I already told y'all what happened-"

"That's bullcrap and you know it teacher! You didn't get punched by a Scizor or any Pokémon! You lied to everyone and they all bought it! Someone else did that to you didn't they?!" yelled Keahi, she had begun to shake.

Guzma had stopped spinning his chair, his side was facing her. He did not look at her when he spoke, "what happened ain't any of your business. Besides, it won't happen again. Now get out and go play tag or whatever kids your age do."

Keahi gritted her teeth and shouted, "no! I'm not going to go do that! I want you to tell me the truth because it's clear that something bad happened to you! Did you get in a fight or something?!"

"Tch." Guzma looked over at her, he was clearly irritated. "This ain't any of your business, Keahi. It's my problem to deal with and I'll be damned if I drag a stupid kid into anything. I don't even get why you care so much, this ain't got nothing' to do with you." He then pointed at her and glared. "So shove off."

Guzma froze up as Keahi suddenly grabbed his hand. He watched her with a puzzled expression as she gently extended his fingers and faced his palm downwards. His knuckles were completely uninjured; in fact, there were no bruises on his hand at all. She glanced over at his other hand, no bruises either, but instead she noticed something else. There was a mark on his upper arm, another bruise. It looked like he had been grabbed tightly.

He quickly withdrew his hand and scowled at her, but she just stared back at him with a horrified expression on her face. "S-someone… Attacked you… Didn't they? You got caught off guard… Didn't you?" she whispered shakily.

Guzma slowly got up, placed his hands on his desk and loomed over her. He leered down at her and spoke in a low and cold voice, "I appreciate the concern, kid. But I don't want anyone's pity, least of all from an eleven year old child. Now, get the hell out of my class and never ask me about this again, and keep your big mouth shut. If you don't I'll… I dunno… I'll do something."

Keahi met his gaze fearlessly, but despite her efforts she could feel her bottom lip tremble and tears prick at the corners of her eyes.

Guzma's gaze became less harsh and he closed his eyes. He exhaled before gently saying, "I'm fine, alright? I wasn't lying when I said this won't happen again; that's why I was so late, I was up all night makin' sure of that. Just don't worry 'bout me, I don't want you to and you don't need me stressin' you out. Besides, I really don't get why you're makin' such a fuss over this. You don't even know me."

"Well… Despite that I really like you as my teacher, sir. You're weird and funny and smart and even though you can get real mean at times I've actually been looking forward to coming here for once," she quietly admitted. Keahi then looked up at him and asked, "Just… Promise me that you'll be ok? Please?"

Guzma averted his gaze and slowly nodded. He spoke quietly, "just don't blab all this crap to anyone else. Go on, get out of here."

Keahi gently grabbed her forearm and nodded in reply as he sat back down. She collected her things and exited the classroom. All she felt was a quiet melancholy as she headed down the hall and descended the stairs.

Nathan was indeed waiting by her locker as agreed. The boy quickly rushed over to her when she reached the bottom of the staircase and asked, "he didn't do anything to you, did he?"

She looked at him in confusion. "No… No nothing at all, I just had to talk to him about something."

"Let me guess… You wanted tips on making your Makuhita less rowdy or something and didn't want to share the trade secret with me?" he asked with a smirk.

She shook her head. "Nothing like that…"

He paused for a moment. "Cammy? Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm ok," she gave him a small smile.

"If that bastard upset you I'm going to strangle him."

Keahi rolled her eyes. "Don't swear. And let's not do this right now please," she stated, but then smiled as she opened her locker. "Come on, I'm hungry and we have costumes to plan out."

He smiled at her in return as they headed outside to eat.


	7. Chapter 7: A Little Bit Of Faith

Sunday, Hau'oli City. The tourism hot-spot of Melemele Island was always quite busy on weekends; especially in the summertime, when locals would flock to the beachfront to relax and cool off in the refreshing ocean waves. Though something was different this warm summer's afternoon, for the infamous ex-boss of Team Skull could be seen heading down the main street.

Despite spending a large portion of his youth hanging around Hau'oli City, Guzma now resented the location with a passion and made a point to avoid it if he could. It was far too loud and bright for his tastes after spending so long in Po town. Though he swore to himself to never return there, the constant faint patter of rain and the darkness that shrouded the town was something that he missed. Not to mention the people of Hau'oli sucked. Their suspicious hateful stares would've brought him much pleasure a little over two months ago, purely out of spite. But now they only served to make him uncomfortable as he walked beside the beachfront, hunched over with his hands in his pockets.

Although Guzma normally disliked the loud bustling atmosphere of the city, ironically, that was exactly why he was here today. He figured a walk through town would help him take his mind off of things; particularly Thursday night's little "incident". He had already dealt with what had happened. It will never happen again. He refused to let anyone treat him that way ever again. But thoughts kept swirling through his mind, causing him to feel absolutely miserable. Wallowing in a drunken stupor all day would've only served to make him feel worse. He should know, after all, that was what he spent yesterday doing. Hence, Guzma decided that he needed to clear his head. Take his mind off of things. If a stroll through the city could help him do that then he was more than happy to face the disapproving glares of the general public.

The swelling around his left eye had gone down, but it was still very sore and the deep purple bruise would not fade for at least another week. Not to worry though, enough concealer could cover up nearly anything. Guzma had no shame in covering up bruises; in his eyes they made him look weak. He had picked up a trick or two when it came to make-up application after living with Plumeria for so long. She was extremely skilled and had an extensive collection of products back at the mansion.

Guzma's thoughts drifted to her. He wondered how she'd been recently. He hadn't seen or spoken to her after ditching Po town and changing his phone number. Guilt pooled in his stomach the longer he thought about her. There was no denying it, he had left her behind. He had left all of them behind. He could not face them again after disbanding the team, not now at least. Plumeria had very strong feelings towards Team Skull, maybe even more so than him. Knowing her she would be absolutely furious at him right now for disbanding the team without even consulting her. Despite that he did want to see her. She was his right hand gal, his best friend, and he missed her dearly. But he could not bring himself to face her fury now. He would visit her later when he had pulled himself together completely. When he was sure his new job wasn't just a temporary fluke. When he actually had somewhere to bring her back to.

He looked around a little, only to spot a couple hastily crossing the street as he approached them. Nice. He didn't need this, so he decided to look down at the beachfront instead. There were many people down there, some families too. They were relaxing and playing, seemingly without a care in the world. As he neared the end of the beach he saw a young girl sitting by herself. She was wearing a pretty white summer dress; it looked like it had been tie dyed with blue. Her white sunhat also had a few small decorations pinned onto it.

He stopped walking. That long blonde hair was extremely familiar to him. Was that… Lillie? No, her hair was straight, this girl had wavy hair. Guzma frowned, he felt disappointed now. They were barely acquainted and were on less than good terms, but it would've been nice to speak to someone that he at least vaguely knew. That girl, despite everything he had done, went out of her way to save him. He definitely owed her, along with the champion, a thankyou if he ever saw them again.

But before he could take another step he noticed something else. The young girl had a Pokémon in her lap, a Cascoon. His eyes widened, it was Hayley. No wonder he didn't recognize her at first, he had only seen her with her hair tied up in a huge plait. There was sand all over her Pokémon; she appeared to be trying to wipe it off with her bare hands. That wouldn't work. Cascoon shells, though very hard, are slightly sticky so that the Pokémon can attach leaves to itself for camouflage. Guzma always carried a small grooming kit with him for his Pokémon; he could easily show her how to clean the creature properly. That was his job after all. But first he looked around; there was nobody he could spot on the beach or near the shops that he could assume were her parents. Was she out here alone? Hopefully. That way he wouldn't need to explain to them who he is or why he approached their daughter out of the blue.

Guzma then jumped down onto the sand and headed over to where she was sitting. Hayley looked up at him when his tall frame shielded her from the sunlight. She froze at the sight of him, her eyes were wide.

He smiled down at her then remarked, "well hey there lil' lady, are ya havin' a bit 'a trouble there?"

Hayley didn't respond, for her breath was caught in her throat.

He sat down beside her and then turned to her, but before he could speak he noticed that she had begun to shake. The girl was looking down at her Pokémon; she had pulled it to her stomach tightly. He began to softly ask, "Hayley? Are you-"

She shakily cut him off. "P-please don't take her Mister Guzma… Please…"

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and asked, "what are you talkin' about? Take what?"

Hayley looked up at him; she was in tears and clearly terrified. After stuttering for a few moments she slowly began to speak, "m-mom and dad looked you up… Th-they said you were the boss of a thief gang… Y-you took Pokémon away from kids like me and m-made your grunts do it too… I-I know you really like my Cascoon… S-so please don't take her away, I c-can't do anything if you try…"

Guzma's heart had dropped to his stomach. "Hayley… I'm not going to take your Pokémon."

"Then why are you here?!" she raised her voice as tears streaked down her cheeks, "why are you even trying to talk to me? T-trying to talk to any of us? A-are you trying to gain our trust so you can turn on us when we least expect it?"

He looked down at her with a hurt expression on his face. He became lost in her fearful gaze. Hence, he didn't notice the eyes of the other beachgoers starting to bore into the back of his head. He quietly began to explain, "that's not it Hayley, I swear… I really am a teacher now. I'm not gonna turn on any of y'all… I'm here right now because I saw that you were havin' trouble cleaning your friend there. I thought I could show ya how."

"H-how am I supposed to trust you now though…? M-mom and dad even tried to pull me out of the school after they found out… I-I didn't hear much of what they were saying but somehow the principal convinced them not to… I-I have no idea how; they're normally so stubborn…" she shook her head before trailing off, peering down at the sand in front of her.

Despite understanding her parent's decision completely, it didn't make it hurt any less. If there was one thing he was thankful for though, it was that Asuka had a true gift of gab. Now he could at least attempt to turn their expectations of him on its head. However, none of that mattered to him right now. Right now, this poor little girl was terrified of him and he had no idea if anything he could say or do would change that. They sat in silence for a few moments as he observed the ocean's waves, trying to think of what to say.

Hayley's sniffles quieted down as she began to speak again, "I-I just… Y-you always looked scary to me Mister Guzma… B-But I thought… I-I thought you were a good person…"

She held her breath when she looked back towards him, expecting him to look furious. Instead his eyes conveyed only pain and regret as he spoke, "you're right, Hayley. You're completely right; I'm not a good person… But, I'm tryin' to be… I don't wanna live like this anymore. I don't wanna keep feelin' like shit all the time and takin' that hurt out on other people. I don't want be a failure anymore… I want to be better." He turned his head to face her again, her tears had stopped. "That's why I have a real big favour to ask you, Hayley… Now, I know you don't trust me… But if I'm gonna be your teacher then I need you to put a little faith in me, alright? I'm going to be better, but I can't if y'all don't throw me a bone. I promise I ain't out to get any of y'all... Really kid, I wasn't lyin' when I said that since I'm your teacher that means I'm your new best friend."

Guzma gave her a small, patient smile as she returned to looking at the sand. He began mulling over whether to leave her alone to think when a loud shout snapped him out of his daze.

"HEY!" A strange young lady dressed in swimwear was standing near them. She had her arms crossed and was clearly angry, but didn't look nearly as imposing as the full grown Charizard by her side. She looked through Guzma, instead focusing her eyes on Hayley before asking her, "is this man bothering you, sweetheart?"

Hayley froze; she had begun to shake again. Seeing this Guzma got to his feet. A few more beachgoers had begun to gather around. He glared at the woman and snapped, "can't y'all read the air here?! Get outta here and mind your own damn business!"

The Charizard let out a loud growl as the lady yelled, "no! I'm not going to leave! Especially not when somebody like YOU approaches a small scared little girl! How dare you! You were just trying to get your hands on her helpless Pokémon weren't you?!"

Guzma gritted his teeth as a hot rage boiled inside of him. Now she'd made a scene; everyone nearby was either gathering around or shooting hateful, disgusted looks his way. Who did this stupid bitch think she was?! She had no idea what was going on, yet she had the NERVE to jump to conclusions in front of everyone! If there wasn't a crowd he would've started beating her down in a battle right there and then! However, he couldn't take this many people, no matter how strong his Pokémon were. His fist tightened as he opened his mouth to shout at her, but before he could say anything a sensation on his right hand caused him to freeze.

He whipped his head around, only to see a small hand gently grasping his closed fist. Hayley was standing beside him, hiding behind him just slightly. Guzma stared at her in shock as she piped up, "M-Mister Guzma wasn't doing anything bad! H-he's not bothering me miss! He actually came over to show me how to clean my Cascoon properly!"

The woman initially looked surprised to see her clutching his hand, but then sneered at that response, "you don't seriously believe that, do you?! Don't you know who this man is?! The only reason he'd be trying to show you anything is to manipulate you into handing him your Pokémon!"

Her fearful expression suddenly became serious and adamant. "That's not true! He's supposed to be showing me how to do things! And I know exactly who Mister Guzma is, he's my teacher!"

In that moment Guzma looked just as shocked as the entire crowd. He was unable to form words when she looked up at him to say, "I want to find a shady spot to clean Cascoon off, it's too hot out here. Let's go, ok?"

He could barely mutter an "ok" as he watched her, dumbfounded. Hayley collected her travel handbag and picked her Cascoon up. He followed her as she headed towards the small crowd; they parted for the two of them without a word. Their stunned silence was jarring.

Guzma followed behind her up off of the beach. Everything else surrounding the two of them was a blur to him. Time seemed to skip past him rapidly as they headed down the main street, then onto the dirt path. Hayley turned left down a small trail, leading into Melemele's forest just outside of the city. It wasn't too long until they had reached a bench slightly to the right of the trail. The young girl sat down, placing her sun hat on the seat. Guzma positioned himself beside her.

Hayley took a few deep breaths as he watched her. They sat in silence for about a minute before she spoke up, "I… Y-you said… Th-that you wanted to be a good person... A-and… A-after watching you for the past week… I think you can be, M-Mister Guzma… Y-you said you wouldn't hurt us, and I believe you… I… I want to see you become better, so if giving you a go helps you do that, then I want to try trusting you a little. Ok?"

She looked up at him, only to see him staring wide eyed with his mouth slightly agape. In that moment, all of his inhibitions had crumbled to dust. Hayley shrieked when he suddenly pulled her into a tight embrace. Her body had stiffened as he rested his chin on the top of her head and quietly began to speak, "holy fuck… You… I thought you would've… It would've been so damn easy to have just left me there… You have no idea how brave you are, kid. Thank you so fucking much… You're not gonna regret this. Trusting me, I mean. I promise you won't."

Guzma loosened his grip a little as Hayley slowly relaxed into his hug. "You remember what you told me, right? You said that we're bug buddies now, that means we stick together, doesn't it?" she gently asked.

He let go of her as he began to laugh heartily. He then rubbed the top of her head roughly, messing up her hair. "That's right kid, don't you forget it!"

Hayley neatened up her hair with her fingers and looked up at him. The look on his face was one that she had never seen, pure joy. She couldn't help but smile back at him; that was a good look for him. It was a welcome change from his usual serious, slightly angry expression.

Guzma then glanced down at the still dirty Cascoon on her lap before commenting, "oh yeah, I was gonna show you how to clean your friend there."

Hayley nodded as he reached into his pocket and took out a refresh kit.

"Shouldn't take too long, your Pokémon's pretty small, takes me ages to clean my bugs off." He took out a cloth and a small bottle of purple liquid. "Now this stuff here'll get rid of the stickiness on its shell for a lil' while, it's meant to be for gooey Pokémon but it works good for this too."

"Ok…" She shuffled away from him and gently placed her Cascoon between them. He soaked the cloth with a decent amount of the liquid then proceeded to wipe its hard shell. The sand came off effortlessly. Hayley's eyes widened as she remarked, "woah… That was so easy."

He grinned at her. "Yep, sometimes the easiest way is the best way kiddo. Here, you do the rest," he said, handing her the cloth.

Within less than thirty seconds the Pokémon was clean, its shell reflecting the small speckles of sunlight shining through the gaps between the leaves above them. It closed its eyes and let out a light hiss. Hayley grinned, "she really liked that!"

"Yeah, it's a good way to bond with your Pokémon as well as makin' them feel better."

"That's awesome… Where did you get that stuff?" she looked up at him with bright, curious eyes.

"You can buy refresh kits and Easy-off at pretty much every store, come on, I'll show ya where." He got up off the bench and stretched before hunching back over.

Hayley returned her Cascoon to its ball before getting up and putting her hat on. "Wait! You don't want to go back into town do you? Not with the way everyone was looking at you…" she asked, sounding quite worried.

He gave her a cocky smirk, "yeah I do, fuck what they think! Let's go have a little fun, just you and me."

She looked a bit unsure, "alright… Maybe just tone down the language a bit please."

"Yeah, sure, whatever." He began to head back towards town, Hayley quickly moved to beside him. He then asked, "Hey, are ya hungry kid? Have you had lunch?"

"Um… No I haven't eaten… I was going to have something after I was done at the beach."

"You're new here, aren'cha? Ever had a malasada before?"

"No? What's that?"

He looked down to see her curious expression and grinned. "Only the third best thing Alola has produced, right after Tapu Cocoa and yours truly."

She giggled in response. "You didn't answer my question Mister!"

"Well, it's like a fried dough ball. Y'all can get five different types, but the sweet ones are the best you can get. The ones filled with coffee cream are my personal favourite."

Hayley snickered up at him, "you don't look like the kind of person that has a sweet tooth."

She looked far more comfortable now, no more awkward stuttering. "Well I just happen to have amazing taste. You got a problem with sweet things or somethin'?"

"No, actually they're my favourite too! I'm not really allowed to have anything like that though; mom says the sugar is horrible for me. But, when I do have sweet things it's normally food I've made myself. I actually really love baking and I learnt a bunch of cheat ways to sweeten things up and keep what I make healthy at the same time."

"You're a smart girl ain'cha? What kind of stuff do ya make?"

"Um… Mostly muffins, muesli bars and cakes for myself. But I absolutely love making poffins for my Pokémon! She really likes the spicy kind so I make those most of the time."

He raised an eyebrow, "the heck's a poffin?"

"It's like a small roll. It's a type of Pokémon food and they have a bunch of different flavours and colours. You make them with dough and berries. But I haven't been able to bake any lately because my Cascoon can't eat. They're actually a Sinnoh specialty! If you want I could maybe make some for your Pokémon? That way I could bake all kinds of flavours for once."

"Thanks but no thanks kid. I don't need any handouts. But if you really wanna make a bunch then do it for the whole class."

"I might just do that then!" She was smiling. It looked like she was in just as good of a mood as he was. "So… How much do malasadas usually cost? I only have a little bit of pocket money on me."

"Nothing. My treat."

She looked up at him surprised, "really?"

He grinned down at her. "Yeah, just don't bust my wallet on a mystic one if they have any."

Hayley felt quite flattered now. "O-ok… Thank you so much!"

"No big deal kid."

She adjusted her sunhat to get a bit of a better look at him as they approached the exit to the forest. There was certainly a different air to Guzma now. He was less guarded in the way he carried himself and it was rubbing off on her. Though he had always taken care to be soft with her she couldn't help but feel that this was very different. For once, there was a real genuine kindness in his eyes.

She squinted as they stepped out into the light and headed down the dirt path. "You really ain't used to the Alolan sun are ya?" he asked.

She shook her head, stopping in slight confusion as he came to a halt. Hayley looked up at him to ask if anything was wrong, only to flinch as he slid his sunglasses over her eyes.

"That's a good look for you," he smirked, "you should get a pair one day." He resumed walking as she adjusted them properly. She likely looked quite bug eyed and silly considering how oversized they were, but they did do their job quite effectively.

"U-um, thankyou…"

The dirt path soon turned to sealed asphalt as they re-entered Hau'oli City. Hayley began to notice an increasing amount of confused and concerned looks thrown their way, mostly from adults. She completely understood why, but could not help but feel slightly uncomfortable with all the attention they were getting. She looked up at Guzma, he didn't seem to be paying them any mind. There was a small casual smile on his face. She could not understand why it didn't seem to bother him. Was he just used to this or something? Maybe it's because he was in a good mood? She couldn't tell.

She followed him into the malasada shop. The ding of the bell signalling their entry may as well have signalled for the patrons inside to stop talking. Guzma didn't even glance at them as he headed to the counter. Hayley, however, was beginning to find their hushed whispering unnerving. She moved closer to him once they reached the counter and subconsciously gripped his jacket for reassurance.

He leaned his elbow on the counter and spoke to the lady behind it, who had instinctively leaned back, "yeah can I get one sweet coffee cream and," he looked down at Hayley, "what do you want kid?"

She flinched at his question then took a quick glance at their options, "U-uh… Vanilla custard please…"

"What she said." He placed the money on the table. The wide eyed cashier opened her mouth to say something then quickly changed her mind. She instead prepared their order as fast as possible and handed it to them. Guzma handed Hayley her malasada then exited the store, she was still clinging to the bottom of his jacket.

The two of them continued down the main street, he had already started on his malasada whilst Hayley had yet to touch hers.

He glanced down at her, "you alright? I thought you were hungry."

"I-I am… I-it's just…"

"All the looks huh? Just ignore 'em, they can't hurt'cha."

"Th-that's not why I don't like it…"

He shrugged. "We can go somewhere else after you get the refresh kit if you want. Anyway, I got a question."

"Y-yeah?"

"Your parents tried to pull you out of my class, right? How come they didn't?" Guzma looked quite confused at that.

"I… Really don't know. They made a huge fuss over it and showed me photos and articles about you… I could barely believe it actually… But they were scared and because of that I became really scared. I didn't hear too much of what they said when they were talking to the principal on the phone because they sent me to my room, I guess they didn't want me to get involved with "adult conversation". But then after that call they left, they went to her house to talk to her about it. They were gone for four hours! It was dark when they got back! Then they just told me that if you do anything wrong or hurt anyone to tell them and then they'll actually pull me out." She shook her head. "I have no idea how she convinced them to let me stay, they're so stubborn and barely listen to anyone else. But at that point I was still really scared and I didn't want to go back… I thought you were going to hurt me… But… I feel better now, after talking to you more…"

He gave her a soft pat on the back. "I told ya already, you ain't gonna regret trusting me Hayley."

"I hope you're right…" She took a bite of her malasada, he had already finished his while listening to her, man he ate quickly. "So… Your bruise healed up really fast," she stated, "that's lucky, it looked like it really hurt."

Guzma felt his chest tighten at the mention of his black eye. "It's still there kid. It ain't gonna go away for another week at least."

Hayley was confused, she began to ask, "but how come I can't-, wait," she giggled, "are you wearing make-up?"

"Hey! There ain't no shame in wearing a little concealer." This answer only prompted more laughter from the little girl. "What's so funny?"

"I'm just picturing you in front of the mirror putting on lipstick!" she snickered.

"Ha ha, hilarious."

She took a few more bites from her malasada to quiet herself down.

"Onto a topic that doesn't involve makin' fun of me… How are ya goin' teachin' your Cascoon to do things? Did ya manage to get it to puff its spikes on command yet?"

Hayley frowned before admitting, "no… I haven't been able to get her to do anything yet, not even for scratches. She won't puff her spikes out unless she's scared and I can't encourage her to get scared all the time… I don't even know if she's listening to me because all she can do is blink until she evolves and I have no idea when that's going to happen…"

"It won't happen for a while; her shell ain't cracked in the slightest. They normally crack heaps when they're ready to evolve. Bad thing is that this really ain't good for what I've got planned, you can't practise anything on a Pokémon like that…" He thought for a short while, but then a look of realization spread across his face. He looked down at her and said with a grin, "hey, I got an idea! Have y'all ever heard of a Cutiefly?"

Hayley scrunched up the bag her now eaten malasada once rested in. "Nope."

"It's a tiny lil' bug/fairy Pokémon, there's heaps of 'em over at Melemele Meadow. How 'bout I show ya how to catch one?" He looked a bit excited now.

Her eyes lit up, "really?! You will?! I've never caught a Pokémon before; my dad caught my Wurmple for me."

They entered the store. "Everyone's gotta start somewhere; I'll show ya the best way to do it. You go and grab what you need. I'll wait out the front for ya. Make sure you've got some Pokeballs too. I gotta go get somethin' myself."

She nodded and they briefly parted ways. It only took a few minutes for Hayley to purchase exactly what she needed, along with three Pokeballs, just in case she messed up her first attempt. She exited the store to find Guzma leaning against a pole looking at his phone.

He looked up as she approached and asked, "have ya got everythin'?"

"Yeah, I'm all set."

"Good, cuz I have somethin' for ya," he said, handing her a bottle of water, "it's a bit of an uphill hike to get there, the damn meadow's on the other side of the island."

Hayley suddenly looked concerned, "um… How long will it take to get there?"

"About two hours on the route we're takin'. What? Don'cha wanna go anymore?"

"No no I do! It's just… Mom and dad like me to be home before sunset and it's already two o clock…"

"Sun goes down about seven, we'll be back in plenty a' time," he leant down to show her his phone; there was a map of Melemele Island on the touchscreen. "So what we're gonna do is go up and around Hau'oli to get there. We just follow Route 1 until the end and then we're there, simple enough."

Hayley tilted her head. "Why don't we just go up Route 2 here?" she asked, pointing to the alternative trail outlined on his phone, "it's much quicker if we go that way."

"Because when we go up that hill there we're gonna get swooped by that many Vullabys and Rufflets it ain't funny. Besides, the scenic route is always better."

"Wouldn't a repel make them go away?"

"Those little shits don't care 'bout no repels, trust me."

"Hmm… Alright then, you lead the way."

He grinned at her as they began to head off down the road. Hayley noticed that they were still receiving stares from curious passer-bys, causing her to subconsciously grip the bottom of his jacket as they walked. Guzma only spoke again once they began to head down Route 1, "so, what were you doin' on the beach by yourself anyway? Your parents sound kinda tight-assed; I thought they'd be with you."

"Hau'oli is a pretty safe place and there aren't any criminals running around anymore, well, other than you… So they let me go out… And I was collecting sea shells; Alola has some really pretty ones that I've never seen before!"

"What do you do with those?"

"I just collect them and display them in my room. I collect all sorts of things, mostly rocks, shells, some fossils and pressed flowers."

"And that gets you what?"

"Nothing. It doesn't have to get me anything, I just really like learning about that sort of thing…"

"Sounds kinda pointless to me."

"No it's not! I'm allowed to have a hobby!" she said with an offended tone, "I bet you didn't do anything better at my age."

Guzma thought back for a moment before saying, "nah, you're right. I just played video games and entered battling competitions."

She looked curious. "Were you good at them?"

"Not good enough."

She tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"Means I never won any."

"Well… At least you had fun entering them, right?"

Guzma scowled. "Tch… It ain't any fun if you don't come first, kid."

Hayley frowned. "That's not the point of them though… They're just for fun…"

"Can we just shut up about this?" She had clearly hit a sore spot.

She let go of his jacket and rubbed her arm. "Ok, sorry…"

For the next forty minutes the two of them walked in near silence, not necessarily due to the topic of their last small conversation, but mostly because they had started heading uphill. Route 1's hills weren't necessarily steep, but the uphill trail was quite lengthy. Guzma had absolutely no trouble ascending the path. But Hayley, who hailed from a much colder region, soon began to succumb to the Alolan heat.

Guzma glanced down to his right to find that she wasn't beside him anymore; he then quickly looked around to spot her about twenty metres back. He watched her drop to her knees as she tried to catch her breath and swiftly headed over to her. Hayley put her finger up and then took a drink from her water bottle. "J… Just give me a minute…"

"Are you alright?! You look like you're about to drop dead in front of me," he asked, voice laden with concern.

"I can make it… Just… Let me catch my breath…" she huffed.

Yeah, no. It was clear that she couldn't. Guzma then turned so his back was facing her and squatted down. "Climb on, Hayley."

"Wh… What?" she asked, puzzled.

He looked back at her. "Do you want to catch the dang Cutiefly or not? I ain't sittin' here all day and the last thing I wanna do is take ya to the hospital or somethin' cuz you passed out on me."

"U-um… Ok…" She slowly got up and climbed onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Guzma took hold of her legs and stood up with ease. "Holy shit, you weigh next to nothin'," he commented.

She rested her head on his shoulder and muttered, "maybe you're just strong?"

"I am strong, but you're fuckin' tiny. If I didn't know ya I'd think you were nine or somethin'."

"I get that a lot… Also, please stop swearing Mister, it's rude."

He rolled his eyes and groaned, "fiiine."

Hayley rested for a few minutes; they were making quite good progress now that Guzma was able to walk at his regular pace. Only a few trainers along the route were daring enough to try and stop him for a battle; however a nasty glare from the imposing young man was more than enough to get them to back off. The young girl clinging to him soon spoke up, "um… So the big red X on your jacket feels like tape… Is it covering something up?"

"Why do ya think that's why it's there?"

"Why else would you put tape on clothes?"

"Well, just cuz you asked nicely. It's coverin' up the Team Skull logo." He felt her grip on him tighten just a little.

"Um… Your gang didn't try to do anything really bad, right? Like, _really_ bad?"

He cocked an eyebrow, "what do you mean "really bad"?"

"Uh… In Sinnoh when I was really little there used to be a group called Team Galactic… Apparently they tried to use the legendary Pokémon to destroy the entire world, killing everyone… Y-you… Y-you didn't try to do stuff like that, r-right?"

Guzma looked at her with a mortified expression and exclaimed, "you're fucking joking right?!"

Hayley flinched, she was shaking now. "N-no… A-apparently they almost succeeded too…"

"That's just fucked! Kid, Team Skull did nothin' like that. We were thieves who loitered about, caused trouble and messed up trials. Plumes and I were the only competent ones too; our grunts were real stupid most'a the time and managed to get their asses beat on a regular basis. Fuck, the worst thing we did was trash an abandoned town."

She had stopped trembling, "Ok… That makes me feel just a little better…"

He did neglect to inform her about the whole debacle with the Aether Foundation, but Guzma could not pin that on the entire team. That was his mistake and his alone to bear.

"I mean, fuck, everythin' I did sounds like kiddy shit compared to the assholes you mentioned…" he commented.

"Language… And that doesn't make what you did any less bad Mister Guzma… Two wrongs don't make a right."

"And yet here you are, clingin' to my back like a Komala."

"I already said that I'm giving trusting you a go. You've been really nice to me today as well. Not like how you are in class. I mean you're being nice for real."

He cocked an eyebrow. "What's that 'sposed to mean? I was being nice for real."

"No, I mean… You're acting different."

"I don't know what you're talkin' about."

"You just are, ok? When you actually try to be nice to people you can be really sweet."

He scrunched up his nose. "That don't sound like me at all, I ain't sweet."

"Well that's what I've noticed."

"Y'all might just have some eye problems then, should get'cha a real pair of glasses."

"Maybe you should take your shades off and look around with clear eyes?"

"Want me to drop you?"

"No."

"Then stop insisitin' that I'm sweet, I ain't some softy."

"You don't have to be soft to be a nice person you know…"

Guzma didn't respond to that, nor did he speak for another ten minutes. Hayley spent her time looking out at the ocean as he ascended the cliffside path. They could soon see the old wooden bridge up ahead, signalling that they were close to the meadow. "We're nearly there, kid. But before we get there I got somethin' on my mind…"

"Yeah?" she asked curiously.

He spoke quietly, "why did'ja stick up for me back there? On the beach. It wasn't out of pity, was it?"

Hayley was quiet for a moment, but then admitted, "no… It was because I was scared… I didn't like the way they were looking at you… They looked like they wanted to hurt you because of me…"

"What? You don't think your boy can take on a couple'a amateurs?"

"That wasn't just a couple of amateurs Mister Guzma! There were ten people standing around with Pokeballs in their hands! You've been good to me so far and I didn't want to see you get hurt!" she was beginning to sound choked up.

He lowered his voice, "alright alright I get it. Don't start the waterworks on me again. But damn, for such a timid little girl you can be real brave sometimes."

She sniffled. "Thanks…"

He crouched and allowed her to slide off of his back once they had crossed the bridge; the entrance to the meadow was right in front of them. Guzma stretched, cracking his back and prompting Hayley to make a grossed out face. He then turned to her, folded his arms and grinned. "Alright, time to get down to business then! Now before we go in there I just wanna make somethin' clear to you. You gotta do everything I say, alright? No ifs or buts, just do it."

Her expression became determined . "Yes Mister!"

"Awesome. Now Cutieflys are real tiny, zippy suckers. There's no way in hell you're gonna be able to hit one with a ball unless you're some pro baseball player or somethin'. That don't matter though, cuz ya boy here's got a couple bug catchin' tricks up his sleeve!" Hayley watched intently as he pulled a jar of honey out of his pocket. "This is what I needed to grab from the store, lil squirts love honey more than anythin'. So what I'm gonna have you do is bait 'em with the honey. When they swarm all around the stuff throw a pokeball as hard as you can and you're bound to hit one of 'em. Got all that?"

She nodded and exclaimed, "yes Mister!"

He grinned. "That's the spirit kiddo, now follow me and keep your voice down, you don't wanna scare 'em all off before you even get a chance now."

The two of them strolled through the cavern, emerging in the bright yellow haze that was Melemele Meadow. They stood, looking over the sea of flowers that were absolutely buzzing with Cutieflies. The air was thick with pollen and the cries of unseen Oricorio echoed around them. He gestured for her to follow as he waded into the tall field, the bee-fly Pokémon around the area made a hasty escape. Hayley followed him, the flowers reached up to her shoulders whereas they only just reached Guzma's waist. He then crouched down under the flowers and began to wade through them via an odd squat walk. Hayley crawled after him, stifling laughter; he had no idea how silly he looked.

He paused as the flowers became sparser and pointed to a large rock in the middle of the meadow, whispering, "right there is where I want you to bait the honey, just spread it on the rock quietly and come back here, take your time kid."

She nodded as he unscrewed the lid and handed the jar to her. Hayley quietly followed his instructions with ease and returned to his side.

"Alright," he whispered, "while we're waitin' get a pokeball out and arm it."

"Arm it?"

"Yeah, just push the middle button to expand the thing and then it's ready to go."

Keeping her eyes on the rock, she reached into her handbag and took out a fresh pokeball. Cutieflies had begun to swarm around the rock, just as Guzma had said.

He then leaned towards her and whispered, "wait until they're eatin' the honey before you throw it."

She nodded and watched carefully. In under a minute the tiny Pokemon started landing on the honey slathered stone, bunching together and pushing past each other for access to the sweet substance. Hayley sat up on her knees and ditched the ball as hard as she could towards the swarm. Admittedly, she didn't have a very good throwing arm. But from this distance she managed to strike a single Cutiefly, sending the rest of the swarm into a frenzied panic as they zoomed away. The two of them held their breaths as the ball rocked once, twice, then settled with a click.

The both of them shot to their feet, cheering ecstatically. Guzma grabbed her shoulders and shouted excitedly, "you did it, kid! That was perfect! You caught your first Pokémon!"

Hayley couldn't suppress her laughter. She moved his glasses up onto her forehead and broke out of his grip, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Thank you! Thank you so much Mister Guzma!"

She felt his body stiffen for a moment before he relaxed and gently patted her head, smiling proudly. "You were great out there, kid. If you ever wanna learn some more bug catchin' tricks then I'm your boy. Go ahead and grab your new friend."

Hayley rushed over to the stationary pokeball and placed it into her bag as Guzma put the used honey jar back into his pocket.

She then skipped to his side as he headed towards the exit. He smirked at her as they walked. "How 'bout I get you home before your parents skewer me for draggin' ya all the way out here?"

"I think I'll find my own way once we get back to Hau'oli! That way I can tell them what happened without them freaking out too badly!"

"Just don't say anythin' that'll get you pulled out of my class."

She grinned up at him; there was a new light in her eyes. "I wouldn't dream of it!"

He couldn't help but return her smile. "Good. Just one more thing."

"Yes Mister Guzma?"

"I'm gonna need'ja to give me my shades back."


	8. Chapter 8: Am I Bugging You?

Two days had since passed. The weekend had progressed quite quickly, at least for Jon, who now stood just before the exit to the school's main building. The boy held his precious pink bear Pokémon close to his chest as he peered out of the door's window. Just outside was the main courtyard where nearly all of the other students were spending their lunch. Jon could feel his heart pounding in his chest as he watched them.

The students had divided themselves up into smaller groups and everyone seemed to be doing something different. Except for Minnie of course, he had already spoken to her. She tended to spend her free time alone in the reading corner. Her quiet nature allowed Jon to build up the confidence to talk to her. She was a very nice girl and he quite liked spending time with her, but Jon felt physically ill at the thought of spending more time in any place resembling a library.

So here he was, standing in front of the door. Unmoving as he observed the other students outside. Across the courtyard he could see Curtis, Yume and Amelia underneath one of the large trees. Curtis appeared to have his drumsticks out again and was tapping away on a biscuit tin to a song playing on the boom box beside him. A pile of CDS sat next to it. The three of them often borrowed the one Guzma brought into class that first day; Jon guessed that he just couldn't be bothered taking it home. The two girls were dancing together with all their Pokémon. That looked like a lot of fun, but he wasn't fond of bands and he had never danced before, at least not like that. They might end up laughing at him for making a fool of himself, or they might just tell him to go away. Jon could practically hear the venom in their voices as they mocked him internally. Just the thought of that imaginary scenario caused him to breathe just a little faster.

He looked out to the right a little more, Hayley appeared to be showing off her new Cutiefly again, this time to Kalino and Iolana. The excitable bee-fly Pokémon was flying around them with Iolana's Wingull whilst Kalino's Meowth jumped for them. Hayley seemed to be giggling as they played together. She had been so bright and bubbly yesterday and was clearly still in an amazing mood. Apparently their new teacher helped her catch that Pokémon on Sunday. Jon wondered why; he hadn't seen them organize anything throughout the week, maybe they just ran into each other? It was anyone's guess.

Jon's heart practically leaped out of his chest when a water balloon suddenly splattered with a loud thump against the window. He felt himself jolt backwards and squeezed his Stufful tightly, prompting a pained squeal from the small creature. The boy loosened his grip and muttered a quiet apology before looking out of the window again; he was startled yet curious. He spotted Nathan pumping air into some kind of contraption, it looked like a small cannon made of mostly wood, tape and piping. Jon tilted his head in confusion as he watched Keahi bounce up and down excitedly beside Donnie as he loaded a water balloon into it. He flinched as Kavika ran in front of the main door, stopping to wave his arms above his head. The boy was promptly shot in the chest with a water balloon, causing him to double over onto his back in a fit of pained laughter. There was a bright red target painted onto his old, soaking wet shirt.

Jon's hands began to shake as he watched the other kids laugh; he couldn't go out there with that going on. If he tried to join in they would probably just shoot those water balloons at him. They would just use him for their own entertainment without really giving a damn about him. There was no way Jon was risking being put in that position again.

He glanced back over to Hayley and the others. Now, he would've loved to go over there with them, but Iolana was there. He sat next to her in class and she always tried to talk to him, well, talk at him. She was so loud and assertive that he could barely get a word in. When he did manage to actually reply to her she'd sometimes tease him as well. She did that to everyone, so Jon was sure that she didn't mean bad by it, but he definitely did not want to talk to her right now.

He desperately wanted to make friends with at least one of them someday, but today clearly wasn't that day. However, Jon didn't want to be cooped up in the building. He headed back down the hall and turned right, leaving through one of the two side entrances. He contemplated sitting down on the stairs where he was, but then found himself gazing into the forest stretched out in front of him. The trees served as sort of a border marker around this side of the school as well as the back. Jon looked to his right towards the courtyard, only to see Nathan and friends being scolded by their English teacher. He felt his hands began to shake at the sight of them and quickly headed forwards into the woods.

A feeling of relief washed over him the further he headed into the trees. He wasn't allowed to be out here, but the forest was peaceful and the cries of the Pikipek and various wild bug Pokémon were relaxing to him. Jon made sure to keep careful notice of where he was in relation to the school. This was quite easy, however, as his watch had a compass feature built into it; the school was located to the west in relation to where he was.

Just after a minute of walking though, Jon began to hear something up ahead. It sounded like somebody speaking, followed by the cries of Pokémon. The boy stopped in place when saw a glint of sunlight reflected off of what looked like a large grey exoskeleton. His heart began to race as he spotted other large Pokémon through the trees; they appeared to be sitting in a clearing, snacking on Poke food.

Jon hid behind the closest tree, only peering out to get a better look at them. The Scizor's bright red exoskeleton drew his eye first; it appeared to be napping against a tree. On the trunk of said tree sat an Ariados, the spider Pokémon made his stomach crawl. He had read about it before online but in person it was much larger than he thought it would be. Looking down back towards the clearing he could see a Pinsir absolutely wolfing down a pile of Poke food. Beside it, quietly munching on its own pile, was a Golisopod. Jon's eyes widened and he quickly scanned the rest of the clearing. Sure enough he spotted a head of fluffy white hair poking out from behind a large rock. Jon moved around to get a better look. His teacher was sitting down eating a Pecha berry, his jacket was on the ground beside him and he was gently scratching the back of the Masquerian in his lap.

Jon winced, his shiner looked even worse than it did yesterday. The purple/blue bruise around his eye showed no signs of disappearing anytime soon, light green marks were even appearing down his left cheek. After seeing the state of his teacher on Thursday morning Jon had spent the weekend making extra sure that his Stufful would never be violent towards him. The last thing he wanted was for a similar incident to happen to him.

Aside from Guzma's Masquerian his entire team looked large, intimidating and very strong. He did not look forward to going up against any of those Pokémon. Jon mulled over going up and saying hello to his teacher, but why would he be all the way out here if he didn't want to be alone? He would only be bothering him. As Jon was about to turn around and head back his Stufful started to wriggle in his arms, it had clearly had enough of being held. He quickly looked down at it and tried to shoosh it, but it only let out a high pitched "fuu" in response.

Jon froze in place as six heads snapped towards him. Guzma's eyes suddenly widened and he turned to his Pinsir, which was now standing.

"Don't you DARE move!" he shouted to the Pokémon, who was already gnashing its huge, spiked pincers together. "Shit shit shit!" He began frantically fumbling through his jacket's pockets.

Jon felt his legs turn to jelly as Golisopod wrapped its huge claws around the Pinsir. He couldn't move as it threw off the larger Pokémon with a shrill screech. It rushed towards him. He had to move. Now. But his legs wouldn't obey his brain. Time seemed to slow down as Guzma screamed at him to run. He shut his eyes tightly and a hard push on his chest knocked him backwards.

His eyes flung open just in time to see his Stufful in the air in front of him, its front paw raised. It slammed its tiny paw between the charging Pinsir's eyes. The sheer strength of the blow sent the bug flying across the clearing. It slid across the dirt, sending dust flying into the air.

Jon was on the ground now, his Stufful landed in front of him, facing the opposing Pinsir with an aggressive stance. He saw Guzma standing near him; an ultraball was in his hand. His clothes and hair were completely dishevelled. The man turned to see his Pinsir rise as the dust cleared. Despite sending the bug flying nearly twenty metres the Stufful's blow appeared to have done next to no damage. But before it could move its body was enveloped by a red light. Guzma had returned it to its Ultra ball.

He looked down at the boy, whose eyes conveyed a mix of sheer terror and awe. The Stufful leered up at him aggressively until Jon held his trembling hands out towards the creature. "H-here boy…" It leapt into his arms, nuzzling his cheek affectionately.

Guzma gritted his teeth as Jon shakily got to his feet. "I am so, so fucking sorry about that," he said, unable to hide the fear and shame in his voice, "that stupid bastard has always been like that, I didn't think any of y'all would come out here. Just… Fucking SHIT!"

Jon flinched when his teacher slammed the side of his fist into the tree next to him. There was no describing how angry he was at himself, if it was any other kid that showed up his Pinsir would've broke them in two.

"I-it's ok! It's not your fault Guzma!" exclaimed Jon. Guzma stared at him in absolute disbelief; Jon gave an extremely nervous smile in return. "I-I shouldn't have been out here in the first place, it's out of bounds… I-if I didn't come bother you none of this would've happened at all! I-I put myself in danger! It's my fault! I'm sorry!"

He lowered his fist to his side. "Jon. It nearly fucking killed you. I should have better control over my own damn Pokémon."

"B-but you do have good control! None of the others moved! Just that one! And I'm ok, see! No harm done, I'm just a bit dusty now! Everything's ok and no-one's hurt, so what's there to be angry over?" The boy's apprehensive smile turned to quiet, nervous chuckling as Guzma stared.

He then slowly approached the boy and crouched in front of him. He began to wipe the dirt off of his expensive clothes, taking care to avoid touching the Stufful in his arms. The corners of Jon's lips curled upwards as his quiet laughter slowly turned to breathy sobbing. "I'm sorry Jon…" he whispered.

The boy sniffled, wiping his tears away before shakily saying, "i-it was no one's fault, ok? L-let's just agree to disagree and say it was all the Pinsir's fault ok? Please?"

Guzma couldn't for the life of him fathom why Jon was so insistent about him being blameless. Despite that, he nodded, just to make the boy feel better. It cut Guzma deep to see him crying after such a harrowing event, particularly considering that this was completely his fault. He spoke quietly, "come on, come sit down…"

Jon nodded as he quietly followed his teacher back into the clearing. His breath hitched as Golisopod, who was sitting back down, held its large clawed appendages out to him with a growl. Guzma sat back down against the boulder and said, "he's the gentlest one outta the bunch. You can sit with him if you want."

The boy slowly approached the enormous isopod and sat down between its legs, allowing himself to lean back against its metal plate as it wrapped its smaller appendages around his shoulders. The Masquerian then fluttered over and perched just beside his leg, gently snuggling up to him. Though they were unfamiliar to him, the presence of these creatures comforted him enough for him to cease crying. Jon glanced over at his teacher; he was looking at the ground, gripping his messy white hair tightly.

He was clearly still upset. Jon didn't want to see him like this and gathered up the confidence to speak. "U-um… So… You said that your Pinsir's always been like that?"

"Yeah. I've had the damn thing for ten years and it's still as violent as the day I caught it." There was a strong bitterness in his voice. "It actually broke my arm after I first captured it… Gave me a nasty scar right here."

Jon cringed as Guzma lifted the right sleeve of his shirt and turned so he could see. There was indeed a glistening, jagged scar. "That looks painful," he remarked.

"Damn right it was. I had to get pins in there and everything."

"Why would you even keep a Pokémon like that on your team…?" said Jon, who was morbidly curious.

Guzma sighed and explained, "at first I thought I could get it to calm down. It eventually only stopped being violent towards me, but not towards everyone else. I've tried time and time again to get it to cool its stupid head around other people but nothin's ever worked. So now I just keep it for the intimidation factor; battles are all I use it for these days cuz that's the only time it ever listens to me."

The boy frowned. "That's actually really sad…"

"Heh, I guess it is. Can't win 'em all huh?"

Jon shrugged. "I guess some Pokémon are just like that. Some people are as well. I guess it's the same with people as it is for Pokémon huh?"

He smiled a little. "It really is… But hey Jon. I gotta say that Stufful of yours was fuckin' amazing. It barely scratched my Pinsir but damn did it knock it flying."

The pink teddy Pokémon let out a pleased squeak as Guzma grinned. Jon looked down at his Stufful with the clear glow of pride. "Yeah… He saved my life, didn't he?"

"Give 'im this." Guzma reached into his pocket and threw a small object to Jon, who caught it with ease. It was a rainbow poke bean.

The Stufful looked up at his trainer longingly and wagged its thick round tail. Jon chuckled and fed it to his prized Pokémon, it was clearly savouring the delicious treat.

"You know Guzma, that was all thanks to you honestly…"

The man cocked an eyebrow, "whaddaya mean?"

"I've been spending almost all of my free time playing with him and training him when he's not napping on my bed. Before you told me how strong he was I didn't bring him out nearly as often… Now I can't even remember why I didn't, he's my best friend…"

"Don't give me all the credit; you're the one who put the effort in, not me. But damn did it pay off…" there was an immense tone of relief in that last sentence. "Fuck, I just… If I lost one of ya I don't know what I'd... Oh shit, wait, dammit!" He sounded frustrated now, a hand returned to gripping his hair.

Jon looked concerned. "Is something wrong?!"

"I forgot that I ain't supposed to be swearin' around any of y'all!" He then pointed at him. "Don't copy me! Or anythin' I do! Well, only copy me in class, alright?!"

Jon couldn't help but chuckle at his over exaggerated reaction. "I don't mind it. And I promise I won't copy it, happy?"

Guzma was clearly relieved. "Good, I don't need your parents all up on my rear for bein' a bad influence."

He leaned back further into Golisopod. "They wouldn't be anyway; they're too busy with work."

Guzma tilted his head and asked, "whaddaya mean "too busy"? What's got them so busy they can't keep an eye on their kid?"

"Um, well, they own a bunch of hotel chains across Unova and Hoenn. They're busy with planning a bunch of new business ventures in Alola, this is one of the world's most popular tourist hotspots after all."

"So that's why you're loaded," he commented. Guzma sat up straight and asked curiously, "so tell me, why the heck are ya goin' to the most small time school in all of Alola when you could go somewhere real fancy? It'd probably do ya a lot better if you picked somewhere else instead."

Jon frowned and looked down at his Stufful. "Because every high class school I went to was full of bullies. The people that I thought were friends only kept me around so they could use me to do stupid things… I always took the fall for them because I thought that's what being a good friend was about, but no, they just used me." His expression turned bitter. "And all the rest of them? If you weren't smart enough or handsome enough or cool enough then they didn't have time for you. Especially if you were some weird nerd like me who would rather spend their time building computers and creating programs than wasting money on worthless expensive crap to show how "cool" you are. Then they just forgot about those things after a week because something "better" came along… Sometimes the things they forgot about were Pokémon too… So I'm still here because nearly all my classmates have been really nice to me so far, they're actually kind people and I want to be friends with some of them…"

"I like you kid… You like stickin' it to the status quo, huh?" Jon responded to his cocky smirk with a look of confusion. "Nevermind. So, if you wanna be friends with the others so bad, why are ya all the way out here?"

"I… I'm trying to work up the confidence to talk to them. But a bunch of them were being rowdy so I got nervous. I just wanted to be alone for now; I'll go talk to them later sometime."

"Since you're planning on talkin' to them anyway, I got a favour to ask of ya Jon. Actually, I ain't askin' you, I'm telling you. Go ask Minnie if she's ok for me."

Jon looked confused and asked, "why? She seems fine to me…"

"She's got bruises and bandaids all over her body."

"But Keahi has that as well and she's fine."

"Keahi gets them because she likes to be stupid and brawl with her Makuhita. Minnie ain't the type to do that, she's too quiet. I keep seein' new ones pop up on her too and I haven't got a good feelin' about it." He was starting to look quite serious.

"Why do you want me to ask her for you? Can't you just do it yourself?"

"Cuz a lot of people open up to their friends more than they would someone like me. If I asked her she'd probably end up lyin' or makin' it out to be not that bad. You're her friend, right? I've seen you talkin' with her a bunch of times."

Jon thought to himself for a moment. It was true that he did talk to her much more than the other students, but did he consider her a friend? He then concluded that didn't matter, if Guzma's hunch was right then something could be very wrong here. Jon definitely cared about her safety at the very least. "Yes, she's my friend. I'll go ask her about it when I get the chance ok?"

"Great. Tell me what she says and don't even think of lyin' to me when you do."

"I won't, I promise." He agreed as the school's bell sounded in the distance.

Guzma put his jacket on and stood up as Jon returned his Stufful to its ball. He gathered his bag and returned his Pokémon before heading in the direction of the school. Jon quickly moved so he was walking by his side, they might as well walk back together; he had the battle class next anyway. Jon looked away from his teacher and took a deep breath before asking, "um, so, do you always sit out here at lunch?"

"Yep."

"Can… Can I come and sit with you sometimes?" He looked up to see Guzma cock an eyebrow at him.

"Why the heck would'ja wanna do that?"

"Well… I get lonely… It'll only be until I make more friends, ok? I promise I won't bother you or anything…"

Guzma thought about it for a few moments before saying, "fine, but on one condition. You got a phone, right? Hand it over."

Jon stared at Guzma's open palm in confusion. "Uh, why?"

"Just do it kid, unlock it too."

The boy took his phone out of his pocket, unlocked it and handed it to Guzma.

He whistled at the sight of it, "latest model. Gotta admit, I'm jealous. Mine's a piece of shit." Jon watched him type something quietly as they walked. When Guzma handed the phone back Jon was extremely surprised to see that his teacher had added himself as a contact. "Now, if you haven't already guessed I sit all the way out here so I can let my team out without them causin' havoc. If you wanna chill with me then gimmie some time to feed 'em first before you come down. Text me when you're headin' over so I can put my Pinsir away before you get there. I don't want another incident like that. Ever."

"Deal!" Jon grinned from ear to ear, there were butterflies dancing in his stomach. He might actually make a friend after all.


	9. Chapter 9: All For Show

**Author's Note: I can't thank all of you enough for the sheer amount of love this story has gotten. I just wanted to let you all know that I am so appreciative of you all, I hope you all continue to enjoy it as much as I have been.**

The next evening Guzma sat in his classroom alone, with his feet up on his desk typing on his laptop. It was just after 6:00pm and the school was peacefully silent aside from the cries of nocturnal Pokémon; despite it being an hour until the sun fully sets. He had recently gotten permission from Asuka to stay behind late as long as he locked up the school. She had handed him a set of spare keys, but not before sternly warning him that if he stole anything she would make him lick the halls clean and pay her back for the items with interest. Knowing her, she probably wasn't joking. But regardless she handed the keys over, at least she trusted him that much.

Guzma glanced at the clock and decided that it was time to head off. He preferred staying behind at the school to do work; he found that he could concentrate far better and the place had great wifi. He packed away his things and shoved them messily into his bag, slinging it over his shoulder as he left the room, locking the door on the way out.

As he strolled casually through the halls he reflected on the day. In his eyes, it had been quite uneventful, but important nevertheless. He went over different types of held items with his students and their effects, while bringing in two of his favourite items as examples; a quick claw and a life orb. Keahi was also quite eager to show off her focus sash, while Kavika learned that the good luck charm he always carried with him was a razor fang. The rest of them just had to bring an item in tomorrow, easy enough, everyone who owns Pokémon has at least one hanging around their house somewhere.

What was a lot more interesting though, was that Jon did indeed visit him during lunch that same day. Guzma had taken him seriously yesterday, but was still doubtful that he would actually want to spend any time remotely near him, especially after that incident with Pinsir. But despite that, the boy did show. He was a very bright kid, more interested in technology than anything else. Guzma barely understood half of the things he went on about and spent most of the time listening and nodding in response. Damned boy was way smarter than him; he was clearly going places, unlike his drop-kick of a teacher.

Much to Guzma's pleasure though, Jon kept his promise. He had indeed spoken to Minnie before coming to see him. She had told him that she was alright. That she was just clumsy and had a tendency to bump herself and fall over. Apparently, according to him, she was fine. Guzma didn't believe that answer at all. Guzma had used that very same excuse when he was her age, along with being rough while catching Pokémon. Her response had only caused more alarm bells to sound in his head, he wasn't about to fall for his own old tricks.

He stepped outside of the building, inhaling deeply; the cool, crisp evening air felt refreshing. He strolled up to the front gate, it was still wide open. He moved to close it, but then spotted something in his peripheral vision. Guzma had spied a faint glow coming from right down the end of the cement wall, tucked away in the corner behind the bushes. He raised an eyebrow, concluding that having a quick look wouldn't hurt, and slowly began to creep over to the source of the light. Hopefully it was just some odd glowing Pokémon, maybe even a Volbeat? Though he couldn't remember any such creatures residing in the Alola Region, if they did he would have one by now.

As he got closer he craned his head over the bushes to get a better look. He just managed to spot a copper coloured bird's nest of a hairstyle, sharply illuminated by the light. A sick feeling stabbed him straight through the gut, causing him to choke on his breath. She was still here, at this hour?

As he moved through the bushes the young girl gasped and shined a torch at his face. "Oh my gosh! You- you scared me! Don't sneak up on me like that again!"

He squinted before she lowered the light from his face. Her momentarily fearful look had been replaced with relief. She had schoolbooks strewn around her and was currently reading a novel, illuminating the pages with the torchlight. Guzma attempted to mask the concern in his eyes with a serious look and asked, "what the hell are you still doing here?"

"Me? What are YOU still doing here?" she replied before remarking, "I thought you would've been the first to leave, honestly."

"Don't change the damn subject! It's nearly dark out, why are you still here Minnie?"

The girl looked downwards and answered, "Keep your voice down… I just lost track of time ok? I like doing my homework outside, it's really peaceful and quiet out here after everyone else leaves."

Guzma then slowly crouched down in front of her, she looked up at him and to her surprise there was a worried expression on his face. He then spoke quietly, "you and me both know that what you just told me is bullcrap. You're hiding here, aren't you?"

She remained silent, but her eyes drifted to the wall beside her.

He shuffled closer to her. "Minnie, what's going on? You can tell me. If there's anyone in this entire region that you can tell, it's me."

Minnie scrunched up her face a little. "Why are you being so empathetic? That's really unlike you, teacher."

"Because I give a shit about you. So what's going on? Who gave you those bruises Minnie?"

"What does that have to do with this? And why are you assuming someone gave them to me? I'm just clumsy ok? I trip over a lot and-"

He quickly cut her off, "don't feed me the same bullshit you fed Jon! I know that's a lie missy!"

She was clearly annoyed now. "Watch your tongue. And you made him ask that?! Seriously?! You couldn't even go up to me yourself?!"

"I have my reasons. And stop. Changing. The. Subject. Who gave you those bruises?"

"Nobody!"

"Did your parents give them to you?"

Minnie gaped at him, horrified. "No! Why would they do that to me?! That's horrible! How could you even think that?!"

Guzma looked at her, puzzled. "Then… Why are you still out here if you're not scared to go home?"

She was silent for a moment, before groaning and appearing defeated. "I'm not scared to go home, ok? I'm scared to walk home…"

"Why?"

She slowly ran her fingers through her hair, frustrated, and explained, "ok so, this has been going on for a while now. There's these two - now please pardon me for this because there's no better word to describe them - _assholes_ that wait nearby after school and follow me on the way home! I live right on the outskirts of the city where there are barely any houses, so when I get close to home they corner me and beat me up…" She was gripping her knees and gritting her teeth in anger. "I used to battle them with Igglybuff to try and defend myself but it's a two on one battle and I can't get him to sing fast enough. They just knock him out with one hit. I don't even bring him out anymore because then we both just end up getting hurt. They then take anything valuable I have and leave; I always take a little bit of pocket money to school now these days to get them to go away faster."

Guzma was now feeling even more enraged than she was. He asked in a serious tone, "do they have blue hair? Dark clothes? Necklace?"

Minnie now looked confused. "What? No? Why?"

"I was askin' if they were Team Skull."

She then snorted and smirked. "You mean those two dorks? Honestly I WISH it was them. They'd just stop after winning the battle and poke fun. Funny story, I actually ran into them once. One of them smashed me in a battle. Then they got all inflated and bragged to each other, so I just ran and hid, before they knew it they'd lost me! These two that I'm talking about, they're worse than anything I've ever seen Team Skull do."

Guzma facepalmed after hearing that. His grunts were THAT pathetic? No wonder barely anyone took them seriously. They couldn't even steal a baby Pokémon from a ten year old? Really? That's one of the easiest things somebody could do. In fact, he could've done it right now if he wanted to; there was literally nothing Minnie could do about it. Wait. What was he thinking? He shouldn't even be considering that in the slightest, especially towards one of his own damn students! On the bright side, at least those grunts weren't going around misrepresenting the team by kicking the shit out of children. He snapped out of his momentary silence and looked back at her, asking, "so who actually did this to you then?"

"Two punk trainers named Peggy and Caesar. They never fail to turn up too. It's like, don't they have anything better to do?!"

Those were some stand out names there. So stand out that they actually sounded familiar to Guzma, but he couldn't put his finger on where he'd heard them right now. Nevertheless just hearing them caused him to grow angrier. "Why are they doing this to you? Any reason?"

Minnie huffed and crossed her arms, she sounded bitter now, "I caught them harassing a Pikipek. By harassing I mean they were kicking the poor thing! It was screeching and trying to get away but Peggy's Raticate was holding it down! So I tried to step in and told them to stop. I gave the Pikipek just enough time to get away back into the forest… But now they've set their sights on me instead! I guess it's because they can actually get something out of me… And it just makes me so angry! More than anything else! I'm angry about being scared to walk home. I hate that I'm too weak to do anything about it by myself…"

"Do you think they're still around here now? Waiting?"

"Yeah, somewhere along the path. They're always there."

"Ever tried taking a different route home?"

"I get lost every time."

"Then how about you let big bad Guzma walk you home? I'll personally make sure they never go near ya again."

Minnie snorted then chuckled. "Did you seriously just refer to yourself as 'big bad Guzma?'"

He smirked at her amused grin. "Just one of my many catchphrases."

"You have catchphrases? Oh my gosh… That's just rich."

He stood up, then spoke in an irritated tone, "just shut up and pack your stuff up already. I wanna get ya home before dark."

"Ooo you're snappy tonight huh?" she observed as she began to pack her books away.

"I'm pissed off. Not at you though. Isn't that obvious?"

Minnie frowned. "I'm just trying to lighten the mood alright? I'm actually really scared… I just don't like showing it. I don't want anyone to think I'm a coward."

Guzma shifted where he stood. 'Me and you both, kid' was what he wanted to say. Instead he settled on, "that's real brave of you. Most people walk on eggshells around me."

She stood up, holding onto the straps of her bag. "It's not you I'm afraid of. Sure you're a weird teacher, a bit of a delinquent honestly, but you're friendly enough."

"Wow. Thanks."

The girl smirked. "I'm just stating the truth."

He began to walk with her following beside him. "You get real cocky when you come out of your shell huh?"

"I've never had anybody put it that way, but I guess? Confident is what I get mostly."

He pulled the gate shut behind them and locked it. "It's just funny considerin' how much you stuttered when I first met'cha. Just shows how mature you are. I'd watch yourself though, cuz one day you might get beat down by someone for it."

"That's already happening, teacher."

"My point exactly."

Minnie began to lead the way, heading towards Hau'oli city. "So it takes about twenty minutes to get home. When I leave really late they hang around later along the route near the suburban area."

Guzma nodded. "Trust me, after tonight they probably won't wanna set foot on Melemele ever again," he assured in a sinister tone.

Minnie glanced up at him. "Don't do anything too rash, alright?" She sounded nervous.

"Can't promise nothin', kid," he stated, clearly making no effort to hide his anger anymore. But to her surprise, he began making an effort to hide his face. Guzma pulled his hood up and moved his glasses over his eyes. He then reached into his pocket and took out a bandanna, covering the bottom half of his face with it; the pattern on it resembled the realistic jaw of a human skull.

Minnie stared up at him. "Uh, why are you doing that?"

"Cuz I don't want nobody to recognize me," he stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

Her tone became slightly anxious. "Why do you carry a bandanna around with you? You look like you're out for blood…"

"Minnie. I just found out that one of my kids is getting their ass beat daily by a couple of jerkoffs for laughs. I wanna give 'em hell, but I don't wanna lose my job doin' it. Is that too damn hard for you to understand or somethin'?" She could hear him gritting his teeth; she noticed he had began to subconsciously clench and unclench his fist.

Minnie swallowed and focused on the route ahead of them, quietly muttering, "you really need to calm down, teacher."

He stopped walking, stunned, then followed after her. He started shouting, "I need to calm down?! Sounds like you're the one who's WAY too damn calm! Hell, you're the one gettin' beat up! Actually, wait one fucking second! Where the hell 're your parents?! Why've they done jack shit about this?! They should be here right now! Not me!"

Minnie put her face in her hands and groaned loudly before turning to him. She poked him hard in the stomach as she snapped, "don't you DARE yell at me! I've had enough of this! I am WAY too frustrated to go into that tonight and I don't need you pushing me on it! And YOU need to calm right down before we end up sending each other into a frenzy, alright?! You've been so darn WEIRD tonight and I need you to start actually thinking straight about all this! Otherwise you can just go!"

Guzma paused for a moment then gripped the side of his hood with his hand before shoving his fists into his pockets. She heard him exhale shakily before clarifying, "Minnie… I'm just worried about you…"

The girl looked away and ran her fingers through her curly hair. She quietly told him, "I know… But, that's not an excuse for any of this and if you want to help me I really need you to calm down… Kids are supposed to feel safe around their teachers. All you're doing right now is scaring me… You look like you want to hurt someone…"

He then pushed his sunglasses back onto his forehead and took the bandanna off, keeping his hood up. There was shame written all over his face. "Look… I just… I'm sorry… Just don't poke me like that again."

"I'm sorry for that too..." She took a deep breath and looked towards the path in front of them. "Let's just keep walking, ok?" asked Minnie as she offered her hand to him.

Guzma raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

"Asking if I can hold your hand…"

"That's just weird," he stated before resuming walking.

She frowned and moved beside him. "You're weird…"

In her peripheral vision, however, Minnie noticed his right hand move towards slightly too far outwards to be accidental. She gently took hold of a few of his large fingers and gave a small smile. Now she was feeling just that little bit safer.

Minnie proceeded to lead him through the backstreets Hau'oli City, towards the developing part of the suburban area. Houses became fewer and further between as the road they were walking on gradually turned to dirt. About five minutes earlier, Guzma noticed two figures starting to tail them about fifty meters back. A quick whisper to Minnie confirmed his suspicions; those two were the ones he was here for. It seemed like they were ballsy enough to tail her even when it was obvious she wasn't alone. Minnie was right. They clearly didn't have anything better to do. How pathetic.

Guzma stopped walking just before they finished passing under the light of a streetlamp. "What are you doing?!" whispered Minnie angrily, "they're going to catch up!"

"That's the plan, kid." He looked down at her; his back was still facing the two figures, which were drawing closer.

"I thought you said you were walking me home! Not confronting them!"

"We can't do this every damn day, Minnie. So I'm gonna teach 'em a lesson. This way they'll back off for good," he explained before leaning down towards her with his hands on his hips. He then assured, "don't worry, I ain't gonna go off the rails, but I'm still gonna give 'em hell for this and there's nothin' you can do about that. Go on home if you want, I'll be fine."

Minnie was clearly frustrated; she puffed her cheeks up at him and then crossed her arms. "You said you'd walk me home, but fine. However, I'm staying so I can make sure you don't hurt them!"

The man grinned a little, there was a little bit of excitement in his eyes. "Fair enough. But seriously? You're lookin' out for those assholes? Man, you're one messed up kid."

She gritted her teeth and grumbled, "sounds like you're the messed up one, teacher."

He was about to protest, but then her expression became one of pure terror as she looked past him. The two punk trainers had stopped at the opposite end of the light.

He heard a young woman's voice behind him. "Aww would'ja look at that? Looks like you got yourself a bodyguard, didn't ya honey? Not that it'll do ya much good, right Caesar?"

"Yeah! Looks like we're gonna get double the goods tonight. Maybe we'll even pull somethin' valuable for once!"

Guzma's eyes were wide as he stared at Minnie. Those voices. Those god damn infuriating voices. He knew exactly who he was dealing with and it aggravated him beyond belief. His expression contorted into one of pure malice as he turned and faced them, pulling his hood off.

Shock spread across the punks' faces, Peggy took a step back at the sight of him. She wore her mid length blonde hair in a different style under her cap now, the last time Guzma saw her it was dead straight. Caesar was attempting to mask the fear in his eyes with a look of anger. His dark hair was far messier than hers and there was a new scar across his right eyebrow. His skin a few shades darker than hers, but nevertheless, their light brown eyes were identical to each other.

"The last damn thing I expected was havin' to deal with you two fuckers again…" growled Guzma sinisterly.

Fear flashed across their faces before Caesar snapped, "just what the hell are YOU doin' here?!"

Peggy then regained her confidence, crossed her arms and added, "yeah! We thought you lived on Ula'ula, never expected to see your stupid mug 'round these parts."

"Well news-fuckin'-flash, y'all were dead wrong!" roared Guzma, "and this is what you're doin'?! Bashin' up lil' kids for fun?! Y'all are the most pathetic sons 'a bitches I've ever had the displeasure of seein'!"

Peggy then smirked. "Never mind what we've been doing. I wonder… What has the 'Big Bad Boss' been up to? We already heard some rumours that you were hangin' around little girls. Guess they were true! What a fucking creep!"

Caesar bellowed with laughter at that remark. Guzma was absolutely fuming. "You're gonna fuckin' get it for that!" He began to storm forward but then felt a strong tug on his arm.

He stopped to see Minnie pulling on him, she gaped up at him and shouted, " wait wait wait! You know these two?!"

Guzma looked back towards the punks; they had taken a few more steps back. But before he could answer Caesar spoke, "yeah we've got a little history going! We worked for him back in our Team Skull days!"

Peggy grinned at Minnie's appalled expression. "Didn't know that your new playmate was the boss of Team Skull didn'cha honey? Couple of ex grunts right here, reportin' for duty!"

Guzma then snapped, "stop makin' up bullshit! Y'all never worked for me! You fuckers didn't even make it past the intro week! Don't you dare think I forgot what you did to that Yungoos!"

Caeser then growled and pointed to his scar, "and don't think I forgot what you did to me! To the both of us!"

Peggy chimed in, "yeah you asshole! You still owe me my Haunter and his Muk back!"

"Y'all cracked that Pokémon's back across a tree and you're complainin' as if I was unfair?! All this is tellin' me is that I didn't beat your asses hard enough!" He shoved his hand in his pocket and took out two ultra balls; the punks produced a ball each in response.

Minnie's gaze snapped back and forth between the two sides. All that talk about not going off the rails clearly meant nothing now. In a flash of light Guzma's Golisopod and Ariados were released in front of him, facing Peggy's Alolan Raticate and Caesar's Croagunk. Minnie gasped as Guzma yanked her behind him. The poor girl was shaking now; there was nothing she could do. Questions spun through her head but there was no time to think. Right now, all she could do was watch.

Before anybody else could react, Peggy pointed to Guzma and commanded, "Quick attack!"

Her Raticate shot towards the gap between his two Pokémon, dashing side to side. Guzma's eyes widened and he shouted to his Golisopod, "block it with First Impression!" The goliath bug intercepted the Raticate at an unnatural speed for its size. It slammed its large claws into the Pokémon's stomach, sending it flying back past its trainer. So they wanted to play dirty, huh? Guzma wasn't going to let them.

Peggy returned her fainted Raticate to its ball and looked to Caesar, panic written across her face.

Guzma then pointed to the Croagunk. "Ariados, Sucker Punch!"

"Dodge and counter with Feint Attack!" cried Caesar. But it was too late, the spider Pokémon was already upon the frog, landing a hard punch to its face. It was knocked to the ground, but miraculously hadn't fainted; it suddenly jumped above the Ariados and slammed it back with a Feint Attack. Its efforts were all for naught, however, as with one more command from Guzma the Croagunk was sent flying with a Sucker Punch from Golisopod.

Peggy broke into a sprint as Caesar returned his fainted Pokémon, following after her post haste.

Guzma called out after them, "we ain't done yet! Ariados, get 'em!"

The spider Pokémon shot sticky webbing from its jaws, tying Caesar's knees together. Peggy stopped running as he crashed to the ground. She frantically looked between him and the path ahead of her, giving Ariados just enough time to do the same to her.

Guzma nodded to Ariados, who gave him a look of understanding before rushing up to the fallen punks. Minnie watched from behind him, it began to wrap Peggy's body in webbing as she struggled. The young girl rushed out in front of him, turning to face him, eyes wide with worry and apprehension. "What are you doing?! You said you wouldn't hurt them! Why are you-"

He quickly cut in. "Shhh!" Guzma then leaned in and lowered his voice, "I ain't gonna hurt 'em, I'm gonna at least keep true to that. But those two need to think I at least might. It's the only way they'll learn." There was a smug smirk on his face as he watched them struggle against the Pokémon's webbing; they were only getting themselves stuck tighter.

Minnie then put a hand on the side of her head; she looked so confused and mentally exhausted. "You… You have no idea how many questions I have… You're… How the hell you're a teacher in the first place is now BEYOND me…" She then looked up at him and demanded, "tomorrow, you meet me where I usually sit, you know where that is. We need to talk."

Guzma just shrugged and agreed, "sure, I get that. I'll be there."

"Remember, don't you dare-"

He swiftly interrupted, "oh for the love of… Minnie you sound like a broken record. Go home."

Minnie crossed her arms and puffed out her cheeks as the man turned and strolled up to the punks with a nasty grin on his face. Golispod towered over the now restrained duo; Ariados had done a great job.

Peggy shrieked at him in panic, "don't you dare! If you take our Pokémon again we'll make sure you'll never be able to show your face around here again! Nobody'll believe you if you tell them what happened! Nobody!"

Guzma's confident grin only widened. "I ain't stupid. Y'all are real lucky tonight, I'm not takin' your Pokémon. Beating you both down was enough fun. I hope y'all like sleepin' rough though, cuz you're not in for a very good night," he then crouched beside the two of them and threatened in a low voice, "but if I ever see you two on Melemele Island again I'll string your asses up, upside down, where no one'll ever find you. Hell, I might even get Ariados to use his toxic thread for extra flare."

Fear spread across their faces, Peggy's breath hitched as she yelled, "you wouldn't!"

He leaned in close to her, "you wanna fuckin' test me on that?"

The girl held her breath as he gestured to his Ariados. It spat webbing over her mouth, silencing her.

When he stood up and looked to Caesar, the look on the restrained man's face turned to rage. He spat, "you stupid bastard! We were too good for your pussy-ass team anyway! Y'all were nothin' but a bunch of pathetic failures! No wonder nobody in Alola wanted any of you idiots!"

Guzma slowly placed his foot on Caesar's throat, pressing down slightly. He leered down at him coldly. "You may be right, but y'all weren't even wanted by Alola's rejects. I wonder what that says about you."

Caesar gritted his teeth as Guzma gestured Ariados, who spat webbing over his mouth. He turned to Golisopod and said, "grab 'em." The bug complied without hesitation as Guzma looked back, Minnie was still watching from under the street lamp. He smirked, giving her a short wave before turning and disappearing into the darkness.

 **Author's Note: The canon appearances for Peggy and Caesar can be found here:** **supersquiddle . tumblr post / 156829272438 / peggy-and-caesar**


	10. Chp 10: Yellow Glasses & Pink Polkadots

The next day had gone quite slowly for Minnie. She was hardly able to sleep the previous night as thoughts and questions danced through her mind; lying awake listening to nothing but your pounding heart is anything but fun. She honestly should've asked her Igglybuff to sing her to sleep, but it was already resting peacefully, she didn't want to disturb it. It was far too late for that now though. Hence, she had to frequently stop herself from nodding off during her classes. Despite it being lunch she wouldn't allow herself to take even a quick nap; she had an important meeting very soon. So there she sat; Minnie had sunken deep into a bean bag in the reading corner, attempting to make some progress in her novel while she waited.

She was dead to the world around her until the loud noise beside hers snapped her out of her daze. Minnie flinched and sat up straight, only to see Guzma lying next to her, he had flopped into the beanbag beside her and had his hands resting behind his head. He looked over at her. "Whaddup?"

Minnie closed her book and frowned at him. "'Whaddup'? Is that all you have to say to me?"

Guzma raised an eyebrow and remarked, "you're really gonna bite my head off for sayin' hi? Seriously? Well then, if you want me to say somethin' else: you look like crap."

The girl rubbed her eyes; she could practically feel the bags under them. "Not my fault, I didn't sleep last night. I wonder whose fault that is…" she grumbled.

"Ain't mine. If they didn't decide to be pathetic excuses for human beings then all that never would've happened. Then you would've looked juuust peachy today." He sounded so matter of fact yet somehow so sarcastic at the same time.

How relaxed he was acting only served to annoy Minnie more, but for the sake of the conversation she decided to start burying those negative feelings. She sighed heavily and looked over at him. "Alright, my bad, I'm just really not feeling it today."

"Welcome to my world, kid."

She couldn't help but smirk. "How do you do it? You always look super exhausted but you never act like it."

Guzma gave her a smug, yet tired grin. "That's my secret, kid; I'm always tired. I messed my sleep up real bad when I was a teenager, never managed to get it completely back to normal. Not like I've really tried too hard in the first place."

Minnie nodded and then paused. They were off topic already; in fact she hadn't even gotten them on topic in the first place. She internally cursed her sleep deprived brain before saying, "ok, now, enough chatting. We really have to talk."

"More like you're gonna sit there interrogatin' me for the next forty minutes."

"That too."

"Fine, whaddya wanna know?"

She thought for a moment. "Well, firstly, why did you lie to us on day one?" she asked with a disappointed look on her face.

Guzma frowned. "What're you talkin' about? I didn't lie to any of ya."

"Um, yeah, you did. When Nathan asked you what you did before becoming a teacher you lied to everyone instead of just admitting it."

"Bullcrap. I just didn't explicitly say 'oh hey kiddos, guess what? It's the boss of Team Skull comin' right at'cha!' That doesn't mean I'm a liar, it just means I have common sense," he asserted.

"Ever heard of a lie of omission?" retorted Minnie.

Guzma then groaned, "well what else was I supposed to say? I would've had most of ya terrified of me right off the bat. Then all of ya would've gone home all 'oh hey mommy guess who my new teacher is?' and half of y'all would've been ripped from my class the next day. I'd rather just tell y'all separately after you've actually started to get used to me."

The girl sighed. "Ok, fair point."

He raised an eyebrow at her, "so, are you used to me? Am I doin' alright?"

She initially looked slightly confused by that question. "Um… I guess? You're doing fine. I mean, my Igglybuff understands me a bit better now, so there's that. Again, I'm really not that interested in battling. I've actually been starting to hate it. I like your class though, but that's only because you're interesting."

Guzma smirked, "glad to hear that your boy is keepin' ya interested."

Minnie cringed slightly at his response. "Glad to be the one to stroke your overblown ego… Anyway, next question. What the heck was that all about last night? With those two? You said you weren't going to start anything and then you just started screaming at each other and then they're all 'oh we worked for him!' and you yelled about them lying then they started yelling and… Everything just went too fast for me."

His smirk quickly faded. "Well… First off, if you wanna be a part 'a Team Skull there's an intro week you gotta go through before you're official. You get paired with a grunt and they show ya the works and all that, then they tell me if you're all good to go or not. Then after that you get your chain. It's the easiest damn thing in the world to get through, almost everyone does." His expression turned to one of disgust. "But not those two. All they had to do was steal some damn Pokémon and bring 'em back here. They did the stealing part just fine, better than most of the grunts, it's the bringing back part that they messed up.

"The damn Yungoos they pinched kept wrigglin' and tryin' to shred Caesar's arm, all of 'em do that when they're scared, it's just a Yungoos thing. So, they thought the girl I assigned to them wasn't lookin'. She stopped off in some bushes to get a better hold on whatever she stole. When she looked up she saw him grip it by the scruff of the neck and slam it back first into a tree they were walkin' past. Accordin' to her, the two of them just laughed when it stopped moving… She took it off of 'em after that. By the time it got to me it couldn't move its back legs, poor thing just kept screaming.

Guzma was sitting up straight now; he gripped the fabric of the beanbag tightly. "I gave 'em absolute hell for that. This may come as a shock to ya, kid, but I rarely bash anyone. Least of all my grunts. Beatdowns from me normally get delivered through Pokémon battles. But those two? They deserved everythin' they got. I then took everythin' they had on 'em, dragged their asses through the mud and threw 'em out of Po Town faster than they could blink."

Minnie stared at him, mortified. "What… What drives someone to do something like that…?"

Guzma let go of the fabric and rested his arms on his knees. "I ain't no mind reader, but what I can tell you is that the both of 'em copy the all crap they saw while growin' up. I'm pretty sure they're cousins, they don't look like siblings. Anyway it's a complicated mess and they told me over a year ago so I can't remember much. Somethin' to do with a family of raiders, Poni Island and all of 'em gettin' messed up bad by Tapu Fini. Guess they were a real nasty bunch."

The girl looked slightly sad to hear that. "Well… It's at least a little comforting to know that you didn't let people like that into your team… But, weren't all of you a nasty bunch anyway? I mean, apparently all the grunts were super weak, but you still robbed people…"

"Yeah, we did, but we were no Team Rocket or anythin'. Unlike them Team Skull wasn't much of a threat. That wasn't the point of it anyway."

Minnie tilted her head and asked, "your street gang had a point?"

"Yeah, to stick it to Alola's crusty old traditions and to give somewhere for the kids burned by those traditions to go. We were just all a bunch of rejects. Some of 'em just wanted to rebel, others really had nowhere else to go, a lot were a mix of the two and some just saw no other way to get whatever they wanted. I ain't gonna go into personal stories though cuz I ain't that much of a jackass."

"How are Alola's traditions hurting people? They seem just fine…"

"Well not all of 'em are bad, I'm mostly talkin' about the Island Challenge," he scowled, "I hate it. Ironically I'm actually supposed to prepare y'all for it. A big chunk of what I'm supposed to go over is about that stupid challenge."

"Why? What's bad about it?" Minnie was intrigued now; the Island Challenge seemed innocent enough.

Guzma seemed bitter now. "First off the damn challenge is optional, but there's this massive expectation that you gotta do it; so if you don't wanna do the challenge for whatever reason you end up getting' excluded by a lot of other kids. Seen that happen to a few old classmates when I used to go here. But the real kicker is if you fail it, oh boy, people act like you just spat in the Kahuna's face. You're pretty much branded an incompetent reject. Either nobody takes you seriously as a Pokémon trainer anymore or your family sees you as nothin' but a failure…"

"That's… Terrible… I knew it meant a lot to people, but not like that… Are you really sure that's what happens? You're not exaggerating?"

"Over half my grunts failed it, it's usually part of the reason they ended up comin' to me," he stated before resting his chin on his arms. "That dumb challenge shouldn't be held up on such a high pedestal, it's just a stupid little adventure for kids, not some end –all be-all rite of passage. I guess it's kinda fitting that I went from takin' in kids that failed it to flat out preppin' kids so they don't fail in the first place"

She thought for a moment. "Is it hard? The Island Challenge?"

"Not if you put the work in. But you'd fail it, kid. No doubts about that. I'm guessin' that's why you're in my class if you hate battling so much."

Minnie looked a little distant after that comment. "Yeah, I guess so," she said before turning to him. "Teacher? Were you one of the kids who failed?"

He looked at her and answered, "no, I passed just fine."

"Then… Where's your Z-ring? Every kid that does the challenge gets one, right? I've never seen you wearing one. Every Alolan adult trainer that I've met has one."

Guzma sneered at her question and replied, "somewhere at the bottom of a river."

Minnie's eyes widened in shock as she exclaimed, "why would you do that?! They're irreplaceable, aren't they? They're made by the Kahunas themselves!"

"Because it's a big fat 'screw you' to everything that stupid ring represents. Besides, Z-moves are nothin' but cheap get outta losin' moves. You could be smashin' someone fair and square but then all of a sudden they pull out a Z-move and completely ruin ya. That's why I took 'em all. The Buginium Z crystals. If a bug type trainer is gonna try and surpass me they're gonna have to do it fair and square; if I don't get to use savage spin-out then no one does."

Minnie gaped at him "You did WHAT?!"

He just gave her a sly grin in response. "Yeah, I got a big chest overflowin' with them back in Po Town."

"I can't _believe_ you right now! You're the reason they're so rare?! Do you have any idea how unfair that is on everyone?!"

"It's a hundred percent fair, kid. This might make ya happy though- some Buginium Z may start to trickle back into the public's hands. I brought a bag of the stuff back with me. If ya'll actually pass my class then each of ya will get one. Otherwise you gotta beat me in a Pokémon battle against my full power team."

Minnie grumbled, "like that sounds easy."

"You're the one on easy street right now, just accept it, you ain't gonna change my mind about nothin'."

"Oh my gosh… Sometimes you're just so… Ugh."

He chuckled in response. "Not the first time I've gotten that."

Her disgusted expression then softened. "Well… If I can't do anything to change your mind, I guess I at least understand why you think the way you do a bit better… And also, about last night, I actually didn't just want to question you. I actually wanted to say thank you. Not just for standing up for me, but for sticking to your word."

Guzma looked away from her. "It ain't that big a deal, I would'a done that for any of y'all."

Minnie then pulled her phone from her pocket and opened up a page on it. "Yeah, but" - she tapped his arm, prompting him to turn to her, she handed the phone to him – "with how scary and, to be honest, violent you got, I really thought you wouldn't keep it. So thank you."

She smiled a little as he read over the article. It was a notice to tourists to be more careful exploring the local rainforests, especially at night. It put much emphasis on keeping an eye out for signs of the local Spinarak colonies, as the head Ariados can be quite aggressive. Guzma smirked at the picture included in the article; it was a nice shot of Peggy being cut out of Ariados's tight webbing. It looked like they stuck to the story he told them to feed to the cops, awesome. "It ain't no problem. Hopefully hangin' them out to dry for a night will keep 'em away. But if they come back you gotta tell me instantly, got it?"

Minnie took her phone back and nodded. "Clear. But… I really have to ask because this just stuck with me… Why was your first assumption that my parents were the ones doing that to me…?" She looked sad to even be asking that question. "That's… A horrible thing to assume… You've never even met them and that's what you think straight away?"

Guzma scowled for a moment. "Sorry 'bout that, that ain't a reflection on them or anythin'…"

"Ok, but why?"

He sighed. "If this gives you some context…" he pointed to his now slowly fading black eye and quietly stated, "my dad gave that to me."

Minnie's eyes widened as the colour slowly drained from her face. There was a stillness, that to her, seemed to last for ages.

She then opened her mouth to speak, but Guzma put a finger over her lips. He spoke with a quiet, cold tone, "I don't want to hear it. I don't need your pity or the endless 'I'm sorrys'. I've already got a handle on everythin' anyway. But you say a damn word to any of your classmates and you're in deep shit, missy."

The young girl slowly nodded and Guzma withdrew his hand. She rubbed her arm; the momentary silence was now far more uncomfortable for her.

"Now, speakin' of parents." The look on his face became serious, "why the heck was I the one driving those assholes away when they should've been the ones doin' it?"

Minnie winced and directed her gaze straight ahead. Looks like he didn't forget about that.

"I'm dead serious; I ain't leavin' you alone until you explain that."

She then gripped her hair in her hands and groaned in frustration. She turned to face him; there was a mix of emotions written on her face. "Ok. Fine. Since this quickly became a "tell all" thing I'll explain. First thing though, there is no "parents", just a parent. Mom was swiftly escorted to the next life about a year ago." Minnie moved her arms around her own body, gripping at her shirt tightly, she looked pained. "Everything was fine until then. But ever since then, Dad… Dad hasn't been thinking straight! Both he and Mom were expert Pokémon trainers; they travelled around the entire world before I was born. Before the incident they were really accepting of whatever my brothers and I wanted to do when we grew up. But now? Dad's obsessed with making us the strongest trainers out there and I HATE it! Entering us in competition after competition. Heck, he was the one who put me in your class in the first place! And I don't even really want to be good at battling, I don't need to be! But NO, since my two little brothers are soooooooo much better at it then there has to be something wrong with me!

She then turned to him; her eyes were filled with indignation. "You know what he said to me when I told him about those bullies? That I should just use them to make my own Pokémon stronger, use them as a goal to overcome. I mean they were just street kids, right? Not like they _nearly killed a Pikipek_ in front of me or anything! He actually believes all that crap about how being picked on makes you a better person! How it makes you stronger! It doesn't! I'm not happier, I'm not a better person, I didn't overcome anything! I just feel angry and scared all the time and it's HORRIBLE!" Guzma remained silent as she leaned back into the beanbag, gritting her teeth, there was a resigned tone to her voice, "it's like… It's like he doesn't realize that all of this is hurting me as well… I want Mom back too… But chasing some stupid dream that isn't even my own wouldn't make her happy… She didn't want us to be just like her. She didn't want to live through us. She told us that she wanted us to make our own dreams come true. That she would be happy if we grew up to do something that would make us happy… I just… I just want to teach four year olds how to read… Is that too much to ask?"

The two of them sat in silence as Minnie quietly fumed to herself. Guzma had no idea what to say to her. Though he doubted that she would want his sympathy, it wouldn't make her feel better in the slightest. But he had something that just might.

He took a deep breath and scratched the back of his head, speaking quietly, "all this is why you resent battling, huh?"

She closed her eyes and nodded.

"Well then… Maybe the present I got ya could make things a little easier…"

Minnie opened her eyes and looked up at him, she seemed surprised and curious. "A present?"

"Yeah, I stopped by the Pokémon Center last night and got'cha somethin'." Guzma then reached into his pocket and held out a Pokeball to her.

The girl tilted her head and gave a false smile before taking it. "A Pokeball… Thanks…"

The man furrowed his brow in annoyance. "No. Whaddaya take me for? Open it."

Minnie eyed the ball curiously before expanding it and pressing the button. It popped open with a flash of red light, releasing a long light brown Pokémon in front of her. The Yungoos cowered away from her, chattering and hissing loudly. The girl stared at it in shock, for there was a long pink scar running down its spine. She slowly extended a hand to it, prompting the creature to cautiously sniff it. Within about a minute Minnie had coaxed the Pokémon onto her lap and was stroking it gently. She then looked up at her teacher; there was no hiding her surprise. "…Is this the Pokémon that those punks hurt…?"

"Yep, the one in the same."

Minnie directed her gaze back down to the Yungoos, amazed. "From how you described what happened… I thought it would've died…"

Guzma gave an arrogant smirk before saying, "The Aether Foundation owed me one. They got real advanced medicine over there; stuff you never even dreamed was possible. I got 'im fixed up and kept it as one huge middle finger to those two, he came around real good huh?"

"Yeah he did… But why exactly did the Aether Foundation owe a gang boss something…?" she asked him suspiciously.

His smirk faded. "We ain't getting' into that… But about Yungoos there, I want you to have 'im. If those assholes ever show up again I want you to beat them down with the Pokémon they hurt. That right there would be the ultimate 'fuck you' to them."

"But I'm-"

"No good at battling? Yeah I know. But if you become good do ya think your dad would get off your case?"

Minnie shrugged and mumbled, "maybe?"

"You mentioned that you keep getting' pushed into competitions. I know my way 'round those pretty well, used to enter them heaps when I was your age… If you wanted I could help ya win one?" he offered before commenting, "that way your dad might chill out a bit."

She thought about it for a moment. "If I get pushed into another one I'll come talk to you."

The man smiled. "Sounds good to me." He then reached over, ruffled her hair and stood up, stretching his arms. "Anyway, I gotta go feed my Pokémon, I'll catcha next lesson. You remembered to bring an item, right?"

"Um, yeah I did. I brought my pink bow and polkadot bow. They were Mom's actually; she got them on one of her overseas adventures with Dad."

"I ain't ever heard of those… Should be interestin'. I'll seeya later then."

He then turned and began to leave. "Um… Wait!" called out Minnie.

Her teacher then turned to her and asked, "what is it?"

She looked bashful for a moment before speaking. "I… Um… I just wanted to say thank you… For being one of the only adults that doesn't speak to me like I'm stupid… You actually take me seriously… So… Thank you…" she said gratefully. She then smiled up at him sweetly.

Guzma's cheeks went slightly pink as he looked away from her and awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Uh… No problem… I guess… Then, thanks as well for doin' the same for me… So… I gotta go…"

Minnie nodded and watched as he turned and rounded the corner. The new silence had ignited a feeling of wistfulness within her as she heard her new Yungoos chatter. She looked down at it and gently ran her fingers down its exposed scar. The girl then reached into her pocket, pulling out her polkadot bow, tenderly tying it around the Pokémon's neck. Perfect.


	11. Chapter 11: Bitter Sweet

Hayley's watchful eyes scanned across the school's courtyard as she stood on the steps leading to the front entrance. She could see almost all of her classmates divided into their little groups, having a good time. All but the one she was looking for. Hayley frowned; she had prepared a large batch of poffins the night before especially for her classmates and now one of them seemed to be missing. The girl entered the school building, holding onto her thatched wooden poffin case tightly. Maybe Jon was inside somewhere? She had previously spotted him speaking to Minnie in the reading corner, but for the past few days he was nowhere to be found. Maybe he just liked to be alone? That was completely fine, but it doesn't mean that his Pokémon should miss out on a delicious home-baked treat.

Just as Hayley was about to scale the stairs she heard the side door shut; turning her head she spotted Jon through the door's window, briskly walking towards the forest. The girl quickly followed after him, running up behind him and tapping his shoulder, prompting Jon to flinch. "Hi there Jon!" she said with a smile.

The boy took a step back and scratched the nape of his neck, he looked startled. "H-hey…" he replied.

"I'm sorry for scaring you, I've just been looking for you everywhere!"

"Um, you have been?" he said awkwardly.

"Yeah, I made poffins especially for everyone's Pokémon! They're a baked Pokémon food from Sinnoh and they're really good. You're the only other kid in my class that I haven't given any to, would you like some for your Stufful?" she offered with a sweet smile.

Jon's eyes quickly darted from the forest then back to Hayley. "Yeah… That sounds nice, he'd like that, thanks." The boy smiled gratefully, but then grew slightly anxious as she looked at him puzzled.

"Where are you going anyway? You're not heading into the forest are you? Mister Guzma told us not to go in there because that's where dangerous Pokémon live, remember? You should listen to him, otherwise you could really get hurt," she reminded him with a concerned tone of voice.

Jon's hands shot up in front of him. "Oh no, I'll be ok! It's not what you think actually. I'm actually going there to meet him; I've been talking with him in the forest at lunchtimes," he quickly explained.

"Oh! So that's where he goes; no wonder I couldn't find him either… So why does he go all the way out there? Don't the other teachers like him?"

"Well yeah they don't, not sure why though, he's pretty cool. That's not the main reason though; he needs to feed his Pokémon and they might cause trouble if he does it near the school. He actually told everyone not to go out there because his Pinsir is really – um - unstable. I sort of learned that the hard way... But it's not out right now, so that's why I'm going."

"Ooooh… Hey, um… Can I come with you? Please?" she asked shyly, "if that's ok with you I mean… The three of us could share the rest of my poffins together?"

Jon grinned. "Yeah, that sounds great! Come on, this'll be fun!" he exclaimed, "follow me, it's this way." He then set off into the woods with Hayley by his side.

Hayley walked beside him peacefully for about a minute before slowly cringing and turning to Jon. "You don't think he's still mad about what happened this morning, do you?"

The boy shuddered a little. "I forgot about that. He's definitely still angry."

"Oh great… Are you sure?"

"Yeah, look I'll show you," he said before taking out his phone and holding it out to her. "You see, normally when I say I'm coming over he sends me stuff like this."

Hayley studied the messages curiously, it seemed like Jon had been meeting their teacher in the woods for only the past two days. Prior to today, whenever Jon had texted Guzma that he was on his way his teacher had replied with both a message, mostly devoid of any kind of grammar, and a picture. The first image was one of Ariados delicately eating a Pokebean out of his hand, while the second was a photo of Masquerian resting in a mess of fluffy white hair. The girl smiled at those photos, they were sweet.

"Those are nice, huh?" asked Jon.

She smiled. "Yeah, it's cute."

"Well, today I just got this." Jon scrolled down, in reply to his most recent message Guzma had sent nothing but a singular 'k'.

Hayley sighed, "great… I just hope my poffins calm him down a bit."

"Well, you did make something for him; he'd appreciate it at least."

"Yeah… I brought something else to show him too, he should like that…"

Jon nodded and then smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry about it too much, he likes you anyway. I've only heard good things about you from him; I don't think he could stay mad around you for long."

Hayley's cheeks went pink as she looked away from Jon. "Thanks…"

The two of them soon began to approach the clearing up ahead. They could see that Guzma's team was still out, bar Pinsir of course. What they could also see, was that their teacher was keeping himself occupied by throwing fist sized rocks at one of the trees, hard enough to leave dents in the bark. His Masquerian was picking up the rocks and returning them to his hand; it looked like the smaller bug was treating this as a game.

Jon frowned, took a breath and then stepped into the clearing. He smiled nervously. "Um, hey there..."

"Hey," the man said with a scowl. He casually tossed a rock in the air before ditching it at the tree.

Hayley slowly walked up beside Jon. "U-um… A-are you ok Mister Guzma…?"

Guzma paused and looked at her, ignoring the Masquerian eagerly hovering beside him. "Just peachy, kid. The heck are you doin' out here?"

"I-I um… I-I thought I'd tag along with Jon… Y-You're, um, not still angry about this morning are you…?"

A hot rage spread across Guzma's face as he yelled, "not angry?! After what that little prick did?! Who the fuck does he think he is?!" He began to pace back and forth across the clearing. "I could've ended up in the hospital! Bet that would've wiped the smirk off his stupid fucking face! And then Iolana's all "looks like the chair couldn't take your fat butt anymore", she can fuck right off with that shit! It wasn't broken! There was no way it fell apart cuz'a that! I went ass-up because Nathan loosened all the damn bolts!"

Jon then spoke up, "how do you even know he did it in the first place?! No one saw him do anything!"

Guzma stopped pacing and glared at Jon. "Didn't y'all see the look on his face?! That's what pissed me off! That smug little fuckin' smirk he had… He knew I couldn't do a single damn thing about it! Not to mention that he builds those weird-ass contraptions and brings 'em in all the time! If anyone knows their way around tools and shit it's that kid! But nooooooooooo… No one saw him so it must've just been an accident! And apparently I ain't allowed to be mad about smashin' my head on tiles no more too! Stupid principal chewin' me out..." He then pointed to the two of them. "One of these days imma catch him out! Then we'll see who's fuckin' smiling!"

Jon shifted awkwardly where he stood and asked, "but why would Nathan do that…? He's normally pretty ok…" Hayley's breath hitched, she waved her arms at Jon and shook her head as he continued, "he's never done anything to us… He's usually really nice…"

Hayley put her head in her hands as Guzma lip curled into a snarl. "It don't exactly matter how he is to you! Haven't you seen the way he treats me?! I've done literally NOTHIN' to that kid and he goes out of his damn way to make shit hard for me! So don't stand there dismissin' what he does to me because he doesn't treat you like crap!"

"B-but… I was just saying-"

Hayley quickly cut in, "ok! We're getting off this topic! No more fighting! Please!"

She quickly walked up to Guzma, who folded his arms and leered down at her. "Why are you out here as well? I thought only Jon was gonna be showin' up."

Jon looked down at the ground and rubbed his arm awkwardly as Hayley explained nervously, "w-well… I-I made poffins for the whole class. Y-you and Jon are the only people who I haven't given any to… I-I thought it would be nice if the three of us could share the rest of them together…"

Guzma cocked an eyebrow; he seemed both surprised and curious. He relaxed his posture slightly, took a deep breath and said, "alright."

Hayley smiled sweetly as he sat down on a fallen log, still clearly fuming to himself in silence, while Jon perched himself on top of a small boulder. "S-so… What kind of flavours do your Pokémon like?"

"Uh… Ariados over there likes spicy stuff, so does Pinsir, gimmie one and I'll feed it to him later. Masquerian likes sweet shit, Scizor up there likes sour things and Golisopod is into bitter food for some reason."

Hayley took her time in giving each bug a number of treats in each of their preferred flavours. Guzma smirked just slightly as he watched her try to throw some poffins to Scizor, who was resting in a tree. She then proceeded to give Jon a selection of the treats to choose from for his Stufful. Curiously enough she appeared to be taking far more poffins out of the case than it looked like she could fit in. It seemed like the case was made using the same technology as most bags were these days, they were always much bigger on the inside than they looked on the outside. She then looked to her teacher and asked, "is your team good around other Pokémon?"

"Yeah, they're chill."

Hayley sat down beside Jon who had now released his Stufful; in turn she released both of her bug Pokémon. As the creatures snacked on their poffins she leaned in and whispered to Jon, "he's a bit calmer now, but he's still mad… Do you think there's anything else we can do?"

The boy stroked his teddy Pokémon as it chewed on a dry poffin. He whispered back, "taking his mind off of what happened might work… I mean, sitting here whispering while he tries to pull his hair out won't help…" Hayley then looked over at their teacher; Guzma was indeed subconsciously gripping his hair tightly. "The order I was waiting on came in this morning as well, so I was gonna show him the items I got. You said you had something to show him too, right?"

Hayley's eyes widened. "Oh yeah!"

The young girl then stood and slowly approached Guzma. He looked up at her and grouchily asked, "whaddaya want?"

"I-I… Um… I-I found something really neat on the beach a few days ago and it reminded me of you… So I wanted to, um, show you…" Hayley reached into her travel handbag and pulled out a large claw fossil, holding it out to him.

He raised his eyebrows curiously and took the fossil from her, studying it. "A fossil… That's cool I guess… What Pokémon is it from?"

Hayley sat beside him and began to explain, "it's from an ancient Pokémon called an Anorith. I actually have lots of fossils back at home, but I thought you'd like this one the best…" Jon moved and sat next to Hayley, both him and Guzma seemed quite interested now as she continued, "because, well, there's actually a big likelihood that Anorith and Armaldo are one of the ancient ancestors of Wimpod and Golisopod."

Guzma smirked just slightly. "Get out… They don't look alike and they ain't even the same type…"

"They don't have to be completely alike! I've read a lot of books on this and there's a lot of research pointing to it… They have a lot of similar traits like their general body shape, super hard exoskeletons and their diet… They also lived in a similar environment; it's been said that since Anorith was a rock/bug type that lived in the ocean that its descendents slowly changed to be water types so that any water Pokémon that wanted to eat it wouldn't have an advantage. All of those reasons and more are why people think they're related."

He was smiling now. "Gotta admit, you make one heck of a case there kid… Why don't you go get that fossil there brought back to life?"

"Um… Do you know where I could do that?"

Guzma blanked for a moment. "Um… I actually have no idea if they do that on Alola, I ain't that big on fossil Pokémon."

Hayley frowned in disappointment. "Oh… I guess I'll try looking for it when I'm on my Island Challenge then..."

After a momentary silence Jon then piped up, "Um… So you know how I had nothing to bring to class yesterday? Well my order came in and I brought some stuff in to make up for it!"

"Did'ja bring anythin' good?"

"Yeah I did actually…" The boy rummaged through his bag and brought the items out. "I brought a scope lens for Stufful, an up-grade and a dubious disc."

Guzma raised an eyebrow and commented, "nice choice on the scope lens, but what the heck do the other two do? I've never heard of 'em."

"That's probably because they're pretty uncommon, they're made only for Porygon."

His eyes went wide and he asked, stunned, "wait wait wait, _you_ have a Porygon?!"

Jon grinned, "yeah! It was actually my first Pokémon! But they don't really feel anything, they just do what they're programmed, so I'm going to use the discs to evolve it when I get better at coding!"

"Can I see it? Weren't there only about a thousand or somethin' made?"

"Yeah they're really rare… But, uh, I don't have it on me right now actually."

"When you do you gotta show me, I ain't ever seen one in person before."

Jon scratched his head and looked away. "I'll try to get it for you I guess…"

Guzma then slowly smirked as an idea came to his head. He looked at Hayley and asked, "what items do your bugs have on em?"

"Cascoon has a quick claw and Cutiefly has a shell bell, why?" She seemed curious.

"Well I got a special lesson in mind for the two of y'all considerin' we have about- "he looked at his watch– "twenty minutes! Perfect! So how 'bout you two have a little battle? That way y'all can see how the items affect how well your Pokémon do."

Hayley stammered, "b-but… B-but we've never battled before! I-I don't even know my Pokémon's moves!"

Guzma gave a smug smirk in response, "that ain't an issue." He took an old, scratched Pokedex out of his pocket and held it up to her. "I'll just scan 'em with this and you'll know everythin' about 'em. You two then just gotta tell your Pokémon what to do. Just say their name and what you want 'em to do, considerin' how much they like y'all they should listen."

Jon grinned at them excitedly. "Heck yeah! This sounds like so much fun! Let's do this Hayley!"

Despite his excitement the girl still looked apprehensive. "Ok… I guess… But, isn't this playing favourites? Won't this put us above our classmates?"

Guzma waved a hand. "Naaah. I mean, I do like y'all, but I'm s'posed to show ya this stuff anyway. A little extra ain't gonna hurt. Besides, y'all could just use what you learn to help your friends if they need advice and stuff. Use this to pull everyone else up to your level if they ask for help."

Hayley then sighed and reluctantly agreed, "o-ok… Fine. I'll battle…"

Their teacher clapped his hands together and grinned, standing. "Great! Hayley you go to the other end of the clearing, Jon you stay here," he directed. Guzma scanned each of their Pokémon and whispered their moves and abilities to each student privately before moving to the middle of the clearing. He stood between the two students as they faced each other. Masquerian perched itself on his head and he placed his hands on his hips, calling out, "alright then! Use all the Pokémon you have on you! No playin' dirty either! Don't direct your Pokémon into attacking your opponent, only their Pokémon! Also Jon, your Stufful ain't allowed to knock trees down, that'll just get someone hurt! It can and will do that if you tell it to so keep a reign on it!"

"Clear!" said Jon as he fitted the scope lens to his Pokémon.

"Good! Whoever wins gets bragging rights!" Guzma stepped back out of the way of the makeshift arena. "Now… Go!"

Both kids sent their first Pokémon out: Cascoon vs Stufful.

The second Cascoon was sent out a bright blue light emerged from the quick claw attached to it and enveloped its body. Hayley, seeing her chance shouted, "Cascoon, Harden!"

The bug's hard shell began to shine, but as it began to strengthen its body Jon commanded Stufful to use Leer. A malicious look from the pink bear caused the bug to begin to shake and cease hardening.

"Stufful! Tackle it!" It began to rush towards the opposing Pokémon fast.

Hayley stepped back then called out, "use Poison Sting!" The cocoon Pokémon puffed out its spikes and shot a purple stinger at the charging bear, hitting it in the leg. However, it shook the stinger off without being poisoned and slammed its body into Cascoon hard, sending it skidding backwards only to come to a halt at Hayley's feet.

She looked like she was starting to panic now, "tie it up with String Shot!"

"Dodge it!"

The pink Pokémon tried to run out of the way, but ended up tangled by a string of sticky web. It began to struggle in the webbing. Guzma smirked, String Shot was an underrated move in his eyes, great for beginner trainers.

Jon appeared worried for a moment, but then an idea came to him, "Stufful! Stop struggling, use Bide instead!"

To Hayley's surprise the fluffy bear stopped moving entirely, was the move rendered ineffective? It looked to her like String Shot immobilised it. Hayley then grinned and shouted with a confident air to her voice, "it can't move! Knock it out with a Tackle before it can get back up!" The Cascoon let out a low guttural growl before beginning to spin fast. It shot towards the Stufful and slammed it backwards.

The bear cried out as its sharp spikes pressed into it, but didn't move. Jon's hands were balled into tight fists, "just hang on a little longer!"

Hayley pointed at Stufful, "one more time with Tackle!"

She was so focused on the battle that she didn't see Guzma wince after hearing that command. The cocoon Pokémon smashed into the Stufful's body once more. The bear's eyes shot open angrily, it stood over the momentarily immobilized bug and slammed its paw square between its eyes. The Cascoon rocketed backwards, slamming into a tree. It fell to the ground, fainted, cracks forming where the Stufful struck it.

Hayley's mouth hung agape as Jon cheered, "that was amazing! You did it Stufful!"

The Pokémon looked back at him replied with a loud, excited 'fuuu!'

The girl ran to her fallen Pokémon and checked it over as Guzma whistled. "Damn, sealed your fate with those tackles girlie. Even if that wasn't a critical hit he still would've smashed ya into oblivion," he remarked with a cocky grin.

Hayley looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Why is she cracked like that?!"

"Woah woah, chill the hell out. That ain't bad, just means she's closer to evolving, if that was any other bug I'd be worried though. Anyway, get back out there! The fight ain't over yet! You've still got one Pokémon left kid!"

She returned her Cascoon to its ball and turned to face Jon, who was grinning proudly. Hayley released her Cutiefly with a fierce look as tears streaked down her cheeks. Noticing that Stufful still had webbing tangled around its legs she pointed and commanded, "Cutiefly, use Stun Spore!"

"Dodge it!"

Despite the Cutiefly's speed, Stufful was able to dodge the paralysing spores at the last second.

"Get it with Tackle Stufful!" The bear was able to land a hit as the Cutiefly froze out of fear.

The bee-fly, though knocked higher into the air, quickly regained its composure though as Hayley cried out, "use Absorb on it!"

Cutiefly spat a stream of green sparkling light towards the teddy Pokémon as it stared at the move in awe. It then visibly grew tireder as the light returned to Cutiefly which, combined with the shell bell activating, squeaked as it regained its vitality.

"Don't let it hit you with that again! Use Tackle!" Stufful rushed to a tree, propelling itself off the trunk and launching towards the bee-fly, who quickly dodged the attack.

Cutiefly attempted to hit Stufful with another Absorb as it landed, but missed.

"Once more with Tackle Stufful!"

"Get it with Stun Spore!"

As the bear leaped to land a tackle the smaller Pokémon released a yellow cloud in front of it, the Stufful travelled through it before connecting with the bug hard.

Cutiefly now appeared to be struggling to stay in the air; it was buzzing its wings unevenly as its tiny eyes began to close. Hayley whimpered at the sight before spotting the opposing Pokémon on the ground, struggling to move.

Jon shrieked, "get up Stufful! Come on! You've almost won!"

The pink bear attempted to get to its feet as Hayley shouted, "finish this with Fairy Wind Cutiefly!"

The bug's wings turned a bright pink as it blew a sharp gush of wind towards the fallen Pokémon. Stufful was swept backwards, coming to a stop at Jon's feet. It had clearly fainted. Jon crouched and gently stroked his fainted friend before returning it to its ball.

Hayley stared in awe as her Cutiefly squeaked triumphantly, puffing out its tiny body with pride. Before she could say anything though, a pair of large hands swept her off her feet, prompting her to shriek. Guzma spun her around in the air, laughing heartily. He put her down and grinned, excitement and pride written all over his face. "Did'ja see that?! You wrecked him on your first battle! That was amazing, kid! Put're here!"

He held his first out to Hayley, who gently bumped it with a giggle.

Jon glanced at them and then stared at the Pokeball in his hand, the feeling of disappointment welling up in his chest. His first ever Pokémon battle and he had lost. He knew that someone had to, but it would've felt great to have won. The boy then flinched as an arm suddenly wrapped around his neck and a fist ruffled his hair. When he was released he looked up to see his teacher leaning down over him with a smirk. "That was one heck of a beatdown, eh Jon? But damn, you got pretty close there."

Jon shrugged and looked away. "I was ok, I guess…"

"What's with that look? That was your first battle ever and you nearly wiped out both her Pokémon with just that one Stufful. Heck, if you had that Porygon on ya as well you would've absolutely smashed her into the dust. Stop beatin' yourself up about it, you did great."

Hearing that caused a wide smile to spread across Jon's face, he held his own shaking hands as he looked at the ground. "Thank you…"

Guzma took a quick glance at his watch. "Oh shit. We gotta go."

Hayley skipped up to the two of them with her now clean Cutiefly on her shoulder, her smile faded when Guzma showed her his watch, time flew during that battle. "Oh my gosh. Thank you for this Mister Guzma! I had a lot of fun but I REALLY have to go now. I'll see you tomorrow!"

Before he could say anything the young girl had rushed off towards the school, he simply shrugged and returned his team to their balls before looking at Jon. "You ain't goin' with her?"

"I… Um… Wanted to walk back with you," he admitted hesitantly.

Guzma looked at him slightly surprised, started to head back and said, "well, I'm not complainin'. But it ain't my fault if you cop it for bein' late."

The boy followed beside him. "It kinda is…"

"Just don't tell 'em that."

Jon looked away and rubbed his arms. "I won't… So… Um… Do you want me to bring Hayley out here more often?"

Guzma looked at him confused. "No. Why?"

He took a shaky breath. "Because… Well… She's really sweet and well… She's better company I guess… Look how quickly she managed to cheer you up when I just made it worse…"

The man furrowed his brow. "What does that got to do with anythin'? Do you think you're not good enough?"

Jon looked at the ground and shrugged.

"If this reassures you a little, then I'll admit that I'd be real disappointed if you stopped showin' up here… Havin' even one person who actually wants to chill with someone like me is a miracle to say the least. Fuck, you still showed even though you knew I was pissed off, that's fearlessness right there… So stop beatin' yourself down and don't bring her back here if you don't want. This was s'posed to just be a you and me thing anyway."

Jon's hand moved to the back of his head as he smiled up at Guzma gratefully. "You have a really roundabout way of saying it… But thanks… I appreciate you too…"

Guzma's shoulders stiffened slightly as he hunched over further. He grumbled, "stop talkin' like you're some damned mind reader."

The boy chuckled. "You do care… Looks like I got you figured out Guzma…"

He closed his eyes and smiled. "Keep tellin' yourself that… But I guess you did get one thing right."

He slowly held his fist out towards the boy, who eagerly bumped it with an excited grin.


	12. Chapter 12: Falling In Reverse

**Author's Note: A very special thankyou to my new Beta Reader DementedScribbler25 for helping me polish up this chapter! Go check out their work if you'd like!**

Guzma looked out over the entire class with his hands on his hips. It was Friday morning and hence all of them were quite restless. The last thing all of them needed right now was to be cooped up inside for over an hour, which was why he had taken them out to the school's courtyard for a second time. He found this to be good timing anyway, considering it was now the time for them to learn how to properly instruct their Pokémon; a lesson which simply would not work indoors. The aim he had given them was to be able to clearly command their Pokémon to do something, such as retrieve an item or do a small trick for example. Considering that the majority of the students had either freshly caught wild Pokémon or baby Pokémon, both of which would still be learning to understand human language, he had given them until Wednesday next week to be able to do this. Then they would need to demonstrate to him individually that they could actually do it.

In his mind this was a simple enough task, they just had to speak clearly and with authority to their Pokémon. If they understood, they should listen. It's the understanding part they would need to work on though, especially if they don't spend much time with their Pokémon. Guzma had already demonstrated clearly what they needed to do with his Golisopod, now he and the goliath bug were keeping watch as everybody else practised with their Pokémon.

Hayley, Jon and Kavika were clearly doing the best out of all the students considering how involved the three of them are with their Pokémon. Kavika's Rockruff and Growlithe in particular were extremely obedient and excited about the attention, probably because they were just pets prior to their trainer attending the school. Guzma could not help but smile when he spotted Yume and Amelia, the girls were working together to teach their Pokémon to follow instructions through dance, creative. The girls giggled to each other after their Bounsweet and Cleffa performed a cute twirl just as they asked. Keahi was trying her best to get her Makuhita to do what she wanted, but it clearly just wanted to play. He would've offered some assistance but Nathan, who appeared to actually be making progress with his ever-hungry Mareanie, was helping her just fine. At least that little prick had one redeeming quality, he guessed. The man stood up straight and looked around for the other students. Golisopod was over by Minnie and Kalino, who actually managed to get to school on time for once. The pair were working together to try and motivate Meowth to listen to its trainer. His bug appeared to be trying to encourage the small Pokémon; Guzma smirked proudly, good boy.

He then spotted another one of his students, Curtis, who had positioned himself further away from the other kids. The boy was sitting down and there was something between him and his Espurr; Guzma frowned at the sight of it. That odd, exotic Meowth-like Pokémon unnerved him at the best of times, its large purple eyes seemed to peer deep into his soul whenever it looked at him. Apparently it was also a ticking time bomb; if someone were to lift its ears, psychic energy would blast everything within a hundred metre radius to pieces. Just the thought of that was terrifying. He couldn't understand how anyone could find it even remotely cute.

Nevertheless Guzma headed over to check on Curtis's progress. At least if the Espurr went off the rails his bugs could deal with it relatively easily, they did have the type advantage after all. But as he got closer to the boy he noticed something odd; Curtis appeared to be arguing with his Pokémon, the Espurr had its tiny arms folded and was sticking its nose into the air, actively refusing to listen to him. There were a number of playing cards floating in the air between the two of them.

The boy groaned, "Come _ooooon_ Espurr, just put the cards back in a deck already! It's not hard!"

The Pokémon stuck its nose up higher and turned away from him.

"No! You have to do this! …Don't talk back to me like that! No! You can play it later! Put the cards back into a deck! Please!"

The Pokémon just squeaked at him as Curtis argued with… himself? Guzma now felt highly confused as he watched the two of them, staring at the playing cards floating in the air. The Pokémon was doing that… right? He approached the boy from behind, prompting him the flinch and look up at him, the cards suddenly fluttered to the ground.

Curtis sighed at his teacher's puzzled expression then asked, "can you give me a hand please? He doesn't want to do anything I say and I'm having trouble convincing him to listen."

Guzma then crouched beside his student. "Uh… Well, do you know why it ain't listenin' to ya? Does it know what you're tryin' to get it to do?"

Curtis grumbled in frustration, "Oh, he knows _exactly_ what I want him to do. All he wants to do though is play his stupid ukulele and refuses to do anything else until I give it to him. But if I do, he'll just strum it and ignore me!" he spat, throwing up his hands in utter annoyance.

Guzma stifled a laugh at that response and then grinned. "Your Pokémon plays music?"

"Yeah, I taught him how." The Espurr opened one eye and peered at the two of them as they spoke.

"Well then… Don't let it get its way; it'll never listen to ya if you do. Maybe make a deal with it," he suggested, "if it behaves for the lesson it gets its ukulele for the rest of the day, if it don't then it gets nothin'. That's what I'd do anyway, it's gotta learn to work for what it wants."

Curtis looked back at his Pokémon, which was now watching the both of them. "You hear that? Do what I want for the lesson and you get the instrument for the whole day, I'll even tune it right for you."

The Espurr looked away for a moment, seemingly considering its options. It then clapped its tiny paws together and squealed in delight at its trainer.

The boy smiled. "There we go… Thanks teach."

"It's nothin' kid."

Guzma decided to stay and watch for a moment to see if the Pokémon would actually keep its end of the bargain. Some of them could be crafty little suckers. Curtis held his hand out in front of him, a faint yellow glow materialized around the fallen playing cards; they floated into the air in an organized rectangular formation. Guzma rubbed his eyes then stared in utter disbelief at what he just witnessed. _What the fuck?_

"When I let go, put them back into a deck," he instructed.

The yellow glow was promptly replaced by a pink one; the cards organized themselves back into a neat deck, which Curtis then plucked from the air. The boy grinned and rubbed his Espurr's head, the Pokémon purred happily in response. He then glanced back towards his teacher, who was staring with his mouth slightly agape.

Curtis's expression became slightly uncomfortable as he muttered, "What's with that look?"

"Did you just… How the hell…"

The boy defensively snapped, "I can make things move, ok? Happy? Want me to lift you up too?"

"No no… I just… I ain't ever seen someone like you in Alola before… I've seen people do stuff like that on the TV, I always thought it was some kinda camera trick though. But man, that kinda thing just doesn't happen here," he admitted, fascinated.

Curtis seemed to ease up and smirked a little. "That's because this weird, backwards region of yours doesn't have anything normal in it. Weird Pokémon, weird traditions, a weird… Vibe? I can't really explain it but something feels off about this whole place. This strange… feeling… comes in bursts sometimes… It even happened this morning… I don't like it."

Guzma shrugged. "I'unno what you're talkin' about. I didn't feel nothin' and everythin' in this region is normal to me," he said, before shifting in his spot awkwardly. An uncomfortable look suddenly crossed his face as a thought came to him. "You can't… Ya know… Read my mind, can you?" he asked.

"I can, if I try hard enough, but I won't. It's not like I want to do it anyway, I don't need any more voices invading my head. Espurr there already talks my ear off and of course my parents just _had_ to move into a house near Route 2," he rolled his eyes at that, "because constantly getting to hear the daily business of the local ghost Pokémon is sooo much fun," he sneered.

Guzma looked visibly relieved. "That's good then… I'll leave ya alone now, but if I find out you've been lookin' through my private business then you're in deep shit with me, kid," he warned coldly.

"I don't care about what goes on in your stupid head, not like you'd have anything worthwhile or interesting in there anyway," the boy remarked.

He began to grow angry at that comment, but then decided against starting something; he had more important things to do anyway. Guzma stood and turned back towards where the majority of the students were, only to spy Iolana flagging him over. He headed over to her, hoping that for her sake she'd keep any snide comments to herself.

"What's up?" he asked.

The girl adjusted her scarf and looked up at him with an awkward half-smile on her face. "Uh, a couple things…"

He folded his arms; he was still quite grouchy from yesterday. "Spit it out then."

She put her hands behind her back and rocked on her heels. "I... Um… First up I kinda wanted to say that I'm sorry for egging you on yesterday boss… I sorta made all that worse, huh?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Well this is a first…"

"Also, um, just to clarify, I did actually think you broke it. I was just trying to tease because it was funny. I didn't know that Nathan sabotaged it…"

"It ain't a big deal, what you said. I wasn't even that mad until I saw his shit-eating grin."

She snorted before chuckling, "Okay, I'm stealing that expression!"

He smirked, "You didn't hear nothin' from me."

"Oh! Also boss, I actually wanted to show you something! I gotta say I was REALLY embarrassed during that first outside lesson… So I've taken your advice when it comes to Wingull! We're all chill now!" Iolana looked towards her Pokémon, which was scratching around in the dirt a few meters away. She stretched her arm out and shouted, "Wingull! Here!"

The seagull squawked at her before taking off and fluttering gracefully onto her arm. She grinned up at him smugly.

Guzma smiled, slightly impressed. "Well would'ja look at that? It doesn't wanna kill ya anymore."

"Yeah we've been having some quality bonding time, look I even taught her to do this! Wingull, do a flip!" she commanded excitedly.

The bird Pokémon quickly took off from her arm and performed a backwards loop in the air before returning to perch on her arm. Her teacher grinned when she gave it a pokebean for its trouble.

"Looks like you've got this in the bag, squirt," he commented.

"Yeah, nothing to worry about here, I just wanted to show off. But before you go, can I ask one more thing?"

"Go ahead."

"Can I touch your hair? Pleeeaaase?" Iolana looked up at him pleadingly.

"Why the hell would you want to do that?"

"Well, I've always liked it! The way it sticks up makes it look so fluffy! Come on boss, please?" she begged.

Guzma looked away for a moment before reluctantly sighing, "Fine."

He leaned over just far enough so that she could reach. Iolana ran her fingers through his fuzzy looking hair, her excited smile slowly morphing to an expression of disgust. She cringed as she spoke, "oh… That… That feels like straw… Yikes…"

Guzma stood up and spoke matter-of-factly, "that's what bleach followed by hair dye does to ya, kid."

"Um, no it doesn't… That's what happens when you don't take care of it right, I have dyed hair too ya know. You should honestly get some better conditioner, or use any at all."

He scowled at her recommendation, "I don't have time for that."

"It takes literally less than ten minutes out of your day to make your hair soft and fluffy. Boss, seriously, it feels terrible," she stated.

"I'll keep that in mind if it'll make you shut up about it. And stop callin' me 'boss' already, I ain't anybody's boss, least of all yours."

"Alright, how does 'Mr Grumpypants' sound instead?"

"Tch." Guzma had had enough of this for today. He could hear her snickering to herself as he walked away. It looked to him like most of the students had things sorted out. Even those struggling seemed to at least be making some progress through asking for help from their peers. But he couldn't help but feel like he was forgetting about someone, he then spotted Donnie. The kid was having massive trouble getting his Pichu to even acknowledge anything he was saying, the electric type was just running around, playing and pulling on its trainer's clothes. The soothe bell tied around its neck appeared to be doing next to nothing.

Guzma walked up to him and looked down at the two of them. "Need some help?"

Donnie stood up and adjusted his glasses as the Pichu began clawing its way up his legs. He winced before quietly saying, "Yes please… Perry doesn't listen to anything I say… He's always been this way, I've been doing everything you've told us to and he still hasn't changed one bit!"

He was clearly extremely frustrated. "You might be doin' somethin' wrong then… Here, let's see if ya boy can help you out."

This was nothing to worry about; a troublesome Pokémon was nothing new. However, what was new to Guzma was that forty minutes later the two of them had made absolutely no progress. The Pichu was still as rowdy as ever and had even managed to steal Guzma's shades. It sprinted away from them whenever they tried to catch it, its cries and squeaks were beginning to sound mocking.

Guzma glared down at the yellow creature, his eyelid was twitching and his knuckles were white. Donnie had his arms folded and was looking away in shame; he had become very quiet a while ago and resigned to letting his teacher do most of the work. Guzma's lip curled into a toothy snarl as the Pichu taunted him, waving his glasses in front of its face, begging him to chase it.

"This is absolutely friggin' stupid Donnie…" he growled.

The boy flinched and mumbled, "sorry…"

"You say it's always been like this?"

"Yes… Ever since I caught him… The only thing I've managed to do is stop him from tearing up my clothes and sheets… But that's because I bought him lots of poke toys… Sorry… I know I'm a bad trainer…"

"It don't look like you're the problem, Donnie, that damn Pokémon of yours is," he said as he tapped his foot angrily, "here, lemme try somethin'"

Guzma put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly, his Golisopod headed over to him post haste. The creature looked at its partner human adoringly.

The man spoke quietly to his bug, "you see that little shit of a Pichu right there, Golisopod? Can you try talkin' some sense into it or somethin'? You know what we're doin' today, I don't gotta explain what you need to tell it."

The large Pokémon let out a low, guttural growl and nodded in understanding. It moved in front of the Pichu, which dropped Guzma's sunglasses as it was shadowed by the towering bug.

They appeared to converse for a few moments, exchanging growls and squeaks. The yellow mouse then tilted its head and asked, "Piiii?"

Golisopod leaned further down towards it in response.

"PIII!", it cried as sparks crackled out of its pink cheeks. A thundershock erupted from the small Pokémon, electrocuting Golisopod. Once it stopped convulsing the goliath bug stared at the smiling Pichu as smoke poured out from the gaps in its hard shell. The entire class was now silently watching, absolutely dumbfounded. The bug suddenly roared, rearing back a massive clawed limb. Guzma rushed between them and pushed his Pokémon back, its claws were still raised. He turned his head and looked back down towards Donnie, who was now standing in front of the yellow mouse with his hands in front of him, mortified.

"H-he didn't mean it! I-I swear! P-Pichus do that all the time! I-I'm so sorry sir! I-It won't happen again! I swear!" he frantically assured. Perry poked its head out from between the boy's legs and poked its small tongue out at the two of them.

The boy's panicked expression quickly turned to terror as rage spread across Guzma's face. "You, with me, now," he growled, "Return that stupid thing to its ball while you're at it." Donnie fumbled for his pokeball as Guzma returned Golisopod. The man turned to the rest of the students and yelled, "Y'all keep doin' what you're doing! No one leaves here until I come back!"

When everybody nodded he picked up his glasses and stormed over to the far wall of the school with a trembling Donnie in tow, they were now out of the class's earshot. Guzma placed his hands on his hips and leered down over the shaking boy. "Do you have any idea what you're doin'? 'Cuz I'm two damn seconds away from givin' you a detention for that…"

Donnie frantically began to apologize, "i-I'm sorry… I-I'm sorry… I-I swear I didn't tell him to do that… S-"

Guzma quickly cut in, "it's not what it did that pissed me off! It's what YOU didn't do! You should'a punished it there and then. But all you did was cover its ass when it played up and hurt MY Golisopod!"

The boy was nearly in tears, he was looking at his feet. "I-I'm sorry… I-I won't do it again… I-I just don't want to yell at Perry… S-sorry…"

He tilted his head. "What? Punishing it doesn't mean 'scream at the poor bastard'. You coulda scolded it then put it back in its damn ball!"

"I-I didn't know… I-I just… I-I'm so sorry sir…" he had begun to choke up.

Something tugged at Guzma's gut as he scanned the boy up and down. The way Donnie was apologizing made this situation seem far too familiar to him, but instead he was in the opposite role. He took a step back away from the child. There was something off here. He was just making it worse by scaring him. He exhaled through gritted teeth and gave his hands a quick shake before looking back at the boy and asking in a much calmer voice, "Donnie? Are you ok? Is somethin' wrong? Other than me bein' an asshole just then I mean."

Donnie took off his glasses and buried his face in his hands as he broke down in tears. A pang of guilt stabbed through Guzma's chest. "Hey… Hey I'm sorry Donnie… Here, let's sit down…" he quietly ushered. He sat down beside the boy, who slowly moved down beside him. The man felt pained to watch this; he hesitantly put an arm around him, moving as though the slightest touch might break the child. Donnie leaned into him, shaking and sobbing hard. "I… Fuck, I… I'm sorry… I overreacted badly, I shouldn't have yelled at you…"

More shudders wracked Donnie's small frame as he spoke, "Y-you were right though… I-I… I-I don't know what I'm d-doing… I-I'm a bad trainer…"

"That's not true," Guzma insisted, "you're an amateur trainer. That ain't a bad thing though. Everyone's a lil' rough around the edges when they first start out, that's why I'm here, to polish y'all up before you get thrust out into the world."

"Y-you don't get it though… I-I'm a failure… A-And if I don't get Perry to calm down I-I'll always be a failure…"

Guzma furrowed his eyebrows. "Who told you that?"

Donnie took a deep breath and slowly began to speak. "Th-they… I-I just… I-If I can't get Perry to start behaving soon Mom and Dad are g-going to make me give him away or d-dump him on Akala Island… I-I know he's naughty but he's the first Pokémon I ever caught and my best friend… B-but I'm just so stupid and disorganized… I-I can create dumb little pictures that mean nothing so easily b-but I can't even pull myself together enough to save my best friend… If I c-can't even do that then there's no hope for me becoming a trial captain… No hope at all…"

"…Everythin' you just said about yourself is a load of crap, ya know? You can't be a failure at somethin' if you never even got the chance to try, Donnie."

"B-but I do try… And nothing works…"

"Then I'm gonna help ya make it work."

The young boy looked up at his teacher, confused.

Guzma gave him a small half smile. "That Pichu ain't goin' nowhere. I'll pick you up in the mornin' tomorrow and we'll go train it up so it listens to ya, ok?"

Donnie wiped his eyes "You… You'd really do that?" His teacher nodded. "I… I'd probably just let you down though…"

"I doubt that… Look kid, I know what it's like to be beat down and beat down until you start believin' all the bullshit that people tell ya… And when that happens, you either shove it back in their face to prove 'em wrong or you end up makin' everythin' they said about you a reality… I did the latter after failin' at the former… You don't wanna end up like me; tryin' to scrape together anything remotely salvageable in my life because I decided to take a baseball bat and wreck everythin' in it. I want you to be that kid that shoves everythin' back in their faces, who wakes up in the morning feelin' proud of everythin' he accomplished despite what they all said… And I'm gonna help ya get there, alright?"

Donnie slowly looked down at his still shaking hands; Guzma was gently rubbing his arm now. "I-I… I don't know what to say… Do you want anything for this…? Money?"

"Nah… I ain't broke no more and it's not like I got anythin' better to do…"

"Well… But… Even though you're my teacher you're kind of a stranger sir…" he sounded nervous.

"I'm alright… Just go ask Hayley if you're unsure, I helped her catch that Cutiefly of hers; also Jon and Minnie. Trust me, I ain't gonna hurt ya," he assured.

"Then… I'll meet you out the front of the school gates ok? Is eleven good? Should I bring anything?"

"Yeah that's fine; just bring your Pichu and snacks or whatever. Come on, I gotta get back to the others," he said, standing up.

Donnie nodded and got to his feet, wiping his eyes and putting his glasses on as he walked back to the others with Guzma. He felt a little better, knowing that at least one person seemed to have just that tiny bit of faith in him.

…

The following day was quite cool and overcast, giving a nice neutral lighting to Melemele's scenery. Guzma strolled towards Hau'oli city with his student; he enjoyed days like this the most, not too bright and not too hot. But as they walked he swore he saw a flash of light spread through the clouds. Though it wasn't supposed to rain today the forecast was sometimes wrong. This wasn't a big deal anyway, he enjoyed the feeling of rain on his skin and Donnie would need to learn to train in all weather conditions at some point, that day might as well be now.

Guzma stopped before the entrance to Hau'oli City and turned to the right, he gestured for Donnie to follow him as he began heading up one of the walking trails through Melemele Island's forests behind the city. Donnie followed behind him apprehensively and asked, "um… Sir? Where exactly are we going?"

"There's a little spot up the trail just off the path a bit; I used to train there as a kid. This way we can train you Pichu without it causin' too much of a fuss for anyone but us."

Donnie shivered as a cool breeze rushed down the path and zipped up his coat. "Ok… That sounds good… So, what exactly do you have in mind? How are we gonna get him to listen?"

Guzma smirked down at him and said, "I got two things in mind. Thing is though, I can't do all the work; otherwise it'll probably just listen to me and not you. So I made ya somethin' last night for you to go through on your own." He then reached into his pocket and handed a notebook to him.

Donnie studied the front of it. Written in familiar bold, jagged handwriting was ' _Lessons On Tough Love_ – By Ya Boi Guzma'.

He began to explain, "that there notebook has got a shit ton of lil' tips on trainin' troublesome Pokémon to pull their heads in and listen to ya. I learnt all that through my Pinsir, but I toned down most of the rough stuff considerin' it's a Pichu we're dealin' with here."

The boy tilted his head and flicked through the pages briefly. The written advice was accompanied by some of the worst artwork Donnie had ever seen in his life, but nevertheless they conveyed the intended messages just fine. "What do you mean by 'rough stuff'?"

He scratched his undercut and looked away. "Well, ya see, my Pinsir is real violent. He would actually try to kill you if it saw ya… He sometimes steps outta line towards me as well, but a swift kick to the face normally straightens 'im out. Now don't get it twisted, that doesn't hurt 'im, it just reminds him who's boss… I didn't include any of that stuff in there though 'cuz I don't recommend punting a Pichu to teach it a lesson. That's just cruel."

"Oh… Ok…" Donnie looked curious now. "So how are we gonna teach Perry a lesson then?"

Guzma grinned down at the boy. "We're gonna show it that it actually gets somethin' outta listenin' to ya. The best way to drill that into its skull is to beat it down in a battle. Have ya ever battled before, kid?"

"Uh, no," he said nervously.

"Well this probably ain't gonna count as your first time, because if my hunch is right that Pokémon of yours will ignore ya and do its own thing. I'll smash it easy if it does that. Then we'll try to get it to battle with you for real."

"B-but… I'm not even a good trainer… How would I make him better…?"

"You can see things it won't and you're a lot more level headed than that thing. You'd do the thinkin' for it, and trust me; you're a lot smarter than that Pichu."

The boy adjusted his glasses. "Ok… I guess you're right."

"I am."

He shrugged as Guzma suddenly cut in front of him and began to head off of the trail down a long overgrown path. Donnie looked around quickly before following after him.

After a few minutes of trudging through the underbrush along the thin, dirt path the two of them came to a clearing. In front of them was a long abandoned battle area, it clearly hadn't been maintained in years and grass sprouted out of the cracks in the hard packed dirt. The white paint outlining the borders of the space was eroded and faded. The entire area was scarred long ago by hundreds of battles.

Donnie walked around the area, taking in the scenery. "Woah… I had no idea this was here…"

Guzma gave a nostalgic smile. "Yeah… There's a bunch of places like this all over the island, you just gotta know where to look. But damn, I didn't expect it to look this shitty. Does no one go out to train anymore?"

"I think most people just like to stick to the city, I do."

"That ain't no fun."

"Maybe you just liked being a loner?"

"What? No. I used to come out here with all my friends. Heck, we even marked our names over there." Guzma gestured to a mossy fallen log as he took an ultraball from his pocket.

Donnie walked over to the log and looked around it curiously. He wiped away some of the moss on the side of it, there were indeed a number of names scratched into it. A few of them he didn't recognize, but there were three that he did. Guzma, Kukui and Molayne.

Donnie's eyes widened, but before he could comment Guzma called out to him, "hey! We've had enough fun now! Get your butt over to the other end of the court and battle me!"

The boy quickly headed over to the opposing side, the sight of his teacher throwing that ultraball up and down caused nervous butterflies to flutter in his stomach.

"You know what you gotta do, right? All the moves your Pokémon has?"

He took a pokeball with a painted case out of his pocket and shakily answered, "y-yes!" Donnie released his Pichu in front of him, yellow bolts of electricity erupted upwards from the ball when it opened. The small Pokémon turned and looked up at him, confused. The boy crouched and explained, "Perry, we're going to have a battle right now. I need you to listen to me, ok?"

The Pichu's eyes widened, it turned back towards Guzma and put its tiny paws on its hips, there was a mean looking grin on its face. Donnie didn't know what to make of that response, but at least it seemed to understand.

Guzma called out, "you ready, kid? 'Cuz here I come!" He flung the ultraball onto the field. Donnie braced himself for the sight of a massive, imposing bug type, but instead was met with a black, lizard like Pokémon. A Salandit. The lizard folded its arms with a sinister chuckle and cockily waggled its tongue at the Pichu.

Donnie stared at it, confused. "Wh-what?"

His teacher grinned and squatted close to the ground. "I got more than just bugs, kid! You seriously didn't expect me to use my team, did you? I'm tryin' to beat you down, not grind your Pichu into dust!" He pointed at the yellow mouse and shouted, "Ember!"

"Dodge it and use Sweet Kiss, Perry!"

Small flames spread down the orange patterns on the lizard's back as sparks formed from Perry's cheeks. Salandit shot a burst of fire at the mouse, which met the fireball with a well aimed Thunder Shock. Both attacks collided into each other, dissipating into smoke before reaching their targets.

Pichu then burst through the smoke, sprinting towards Salandit.

Guzma called out, "Sweet Scent!" The Pokémon took a deep breath then blew a pink hazy cloud all over its own side of the court.

"Stop running and use Tail Whip!" Perry ignored him and ran straight into the cloud. Donnie groaned in frustration as his Pokémon stopped running and put its nose in the air, it began to wander around, curious about the source of the smell.

The lizard looked back at its trainer, who gestured to the Pichu and commanded with a cocky smirk, "get it with a Scratch!" It scampered up behind the distracted Pichu, which turned its head at the last minute, only to be scratched across the face by the opposing Pokémon's sharp claws.

The mouse Pokémon squeaked in pain and rushed back to its side of the court near its trainer. It then turned and faced its opponent with a furious look on its face. The Salandit chuckled menacingly and waved its tail in the air. Donnie yelled, "Perry! Get it with Sweet Kiss!" Instead the small Pokémon developed a Nasty Plot in its head and rubbed its paws together with a devilish grin.

"Again with Ember!" The yellow mouse leapt above the fireball and rushed towards the lizard, sparks rushing from its cheeks. "Get outta the way and use Poison Gas!"

Salandit leapt out of the way as a stream of lightning connected with where it just stood. The orange pattern down its back turned purple as it spat a purple cloud directly around the Pichu. It froze in the cloud and quickly ran out of it. The small Pokémon began to cough; it was Poisoned. The lizard then began to scamper up to it faster than the Pichu could recover. Donnie cried out, "Thunder Shock! Now!"

But the electric type only looked at its approaching opponent in terror and began to sprint away from it.

Guzma triumphantly called out, "finish it off with Scratch!"

Salandit out-sped the Pichu with ease and leaped onto its back, holding it down as it screamed. One last Scratch, combined with the Poison was all it took for Perry to faint. The lizard climbed off of it and gave a proud, sinister chuckle.

Donnie walked up to his fainted Pokémon in shame as the Salandit rushed back to Guzma, looking for praise. He picked up his Pokémon, the Pichu was having trouble keeping its eyes open, but he could tell it was extremely angry. "Perry… You know exactly why you lost, don't you?" The small Pokémon looked away and continued to cough; Donnie held it close and walked up to Guzma, who was giving his Salandit a scratch on the tummy for its efforts.

Guzma returned his Pokémon and held a hand out to Donnie. "Give it here; I have some stuff here to fix it right up."

He handed the Pichu to his teacher, who proceeded to completely heal the electric type, when he was finished it looked like it hadn't even battled at all. Donnie then picked up his sulking Pokémon, its ears were flat against its head and it was gritting its needle sharp teeth. "We're going to try that again, ok? This time I want you do to everything I say Perry, Guzma's a top class trainer, we can't defeat him if we don't work together…" Perry pouted and looked away. "I know you're strong and independent, but you need to work with me if we're going to bring out your full potential. We're best friends, remember? We can't do this alone…"

The Pokémon then looked up at him; the boy gave it a small smile. "Please?" A determined look came to Perry's eyes; it gave a small nod in response. Donnie's eyes lit up. "We're going to beat him this time, ok?"

Perry grinned. "Chuuuu!"

Guzma stood up and stretched. "Y'all ready to go again? Then get back over to your side so I can wreck ya a second time," he told them with a cocky smirk.

Donnie grinned. "Not going to happen sir!" Perry leapt out of his arms and cried, "PiiiiCHUUUU!"

The two of them began to head over to their end of the court, filled with determination and excitement, but Donnie stopped when Perry froze, its ears pricked straight up. "What's up? Is something wrong Perry?" he asked.

The small Pokémon had begun to growl; its tail shot straight into the air. There was a rustling in the bushes ahead of them.

Guzma looked towards them and called out, "hey! What's the hold up? Hurry up you… two…" The man stared in disbelief, for an otherworldly creature levitated in front of the two of them. An Ultra Beast. Nihilego.

Perry hissed as Donnie took a step back, he began to tremble. "Wh-what the heck is that?!"

Guzma had completely frozen. Not again. No. No no no.

The beast curled its front two appendages up towards itself and let out what could only be described as a distorted giggling sound before starting to approach the three of them. Donnie flinched and sprinted back to his teacher's side, Perry quickly followed. "Sir! S-Sir what the heck is that thing?!" No response. "What… Guzma?" He looked up at him. Guzma stared ahead at the beast; there was nothing but pure terror written on his face.

Perry hid between Donnie's legs as the creature drew closer. The boy shook his teacher hard. "Come on! We have to get away from it! Guzma, come _on_! What's wrong with you?!" Guzma had begun to breathe harder; there was a distant look in his eyes.

Donnie bit his lip and looked at Perry, "go! Thundershock it!"

The little Pokémon shook where it stood for a moment before rushing out in front of its trainer and unleashing a Thundershock upon the approaching Nihilego.

A small amount of smoke drifted off of the beast, its tentacles spasmed as it unleashed a shrill cry towards them. "Run around it! Dodge anything it throws at you! See if you can get a Sweet Kiss on it!"

Perry sped off towards the creature and began to circle it fast. The mouse Pokémon couldn't tell whether it had an opening or not, for the beast had no eyes. Meanwhile Donnie attempted to shake Guzma out of his daze, but the man failed to budge. Perry decided to rush towards the beast, lunging at it. But the creature disappeared before it could make contact. The Pokémon looked around in confusion as the Nihilego appeared behind it. Its eyes widened as the Ultra Beast unleashed a Power Gem towards it, shooting a beam of hard light into it. Perry slammed into a tree and fell to the ground, wheezing.

Tears welled up in Donnie's eyes as he punched his teacher's arm, yelling, "Guzma! Come on! _Please_!"

The Nihilego then slowly turned back towards the two of them, giggling. Guzma's hands were shaking. The beast moved to lunge at them, but stopped at the sound of a cry behind it.

Perry had slowly pushed itself to its feet. The little Pokémon had just managed to tough it out; it was covered in dirt and bruises. It gritted its teeth as the Nihilego turned back around to face it. Sparks flew wildly from its cheeks, it screamed at the beast as its body was enveloped in a blinding white light.

Donnie covered his eyes, the boy gasped when the light faded. Perry looked down at itself then clenched its tiny fists. With a malicious grin it raised its arm across its body, "PIKA" –it drew its finger across its neck- "CHU!"

"Distract it in any way you can! Don't let it hit you!"

Perry shot off just before another beam of light hit it. It moved around the beast with lightning speed, fading in and out of visibility. It then slammed its first directly into the Nihilego's cranium with a Quick Attack, leaping off of the clear dome and back onto the ground. The Ultra Beast remained still in the air; it trembled as it tried to move, Perry's static had paralysed it.

Donnie quickly ran backwards from his teacher; he still wasn't moving. The boy took his glasses off and put them into his pocket, he would apologize for this later. He spun on his heel and, sprinting quickly, slammed his body into the larger man, sending the two of them crashing to the ground.

Guzma shot upright and looked around panicked, only to see Donnie on his lap. The boy grabbed his hoodie and shook hard, yelling, "SIR! Are you with me now?!"

"Y-yeah… What the fuck is going on?! Why are you…" His eyes had drifted back to the Nihilego struggling to move as Perry continuously Thundershocked it.

"You need to get rid of that thing! It's too strong for Perry! It'll blast us to pieces if you don't do something!"

The man blinked, dispelled his fearful look then gritted his teeth. "Move." Donnie moved off of him, allowing Guzma to get to his feet. He pulled an ultraball from his pocket and threw it onto the court, unleashing his Scizor.

Guzma pointed to the Nihelego and roared, "Iron Head!"

The Scizor's head turned radiant silver as it shot towards the beast. The attack connected hard, sending the creature flying back.

"Use Bullet Punch! Crush that thing! Don't let up!"

The bug type didn't even let the Nihilego flinch before its hard claws relentlessly connected with its cranium over and over again. The beast, however, was soon able to wriggle out from under it and rush off into the forest.

Donnie stood there out of breath as Guzma returned his Scizor. "Get your damn Pokémon," he commanded, "we need to leave. Right now!"

"Perry! Come back!" The Pikachu ran back towards its trainer then tripped, it was absolutely exhausted. Donnie returned it and flinched as Guzma tightly grabbed his wrist and yanked him along as he stormed out of the clearing. The boy looked up at him, his teacher was visibly shaken. "Wh-what the heck was that thing? I-I've never heard of any Pokémon like that before…"

Guzma quietly snapped, "not now. Later. We need to get out of here. It'll come back."

"B-but… Why did you freeze up like that? That's not like you…" he asked, extremely worried.

The man shot a glare at him. "Don't you know what 'later' means? Shut it."

Guzma let go of Donnie's wrist when they had made it back to the main trail. The two of them quickly headed back down towards the exit; there was no time to waste, but as they were walking a strange man in a brown overcoat rushed up the trail towards them. Before Guzma could say anything the man stopped in front of them, placed his hands on his knees and huffed, out of breath. He held a finger up to them before standing up straight and adjusting his coat. "Please excuse me you two. I only need a moment of your time. Perhaps three," he said.

Donnie looked between the two of them; Guzma seemed just as confused as he was.

The man took out a leather wallet from his coat and showed them the badge inside. "I am with the International Police, my code name is Looker. I must speak with the two of you very briefly."

Guzma stiffened at the sight of the badge. "'Bout what?" he asked suspiciously.

"There have been sightings of an extremely dangerous creature very close by to this location. I must ask you both to evacuate the area immediately!" he promptly ordered.

Guzma gritted his teeth in frustration, "that would've been fuckin' great to know about an hour ago!"

Looker's eyes widened. "You have encountered the creature? Please tell me exactly where!"

"Up the trail more on an old path to the right, keep an eye out or you'll miss it."

"Ah, I thank you. Please stay safe and pass this information onto anyone you encounter." Looker moved past the two of them, but before they could continue walking he stopped and turned back to them. "Pardon, pardon. In a moment of rushed trepidation I forgot to ask. You match the description of a man named Guzma, is this person you?"

Guzma stopped walking, braced himself and turned back to Looker. "Yeah, that's me."

"Ah! Yes. You are quite the difficult person to track down. I have an urgent piece of information that I must share with you! Two actually!"

He raised an eyebrow. "Go on."

Looker quickly approached the both of them and looked down at Donnie. "This is not for yours ears. I am about to share classified information. But I cannot allow someone your age to wander unsupervised with that creature around. I trust that you will not tell a soul?"

Donnie had gone pale, he swallowed and nodded. "N-Not a word…" he agreed.

"Ah… Good," he said before looking back up at Guzma, "In the wake of the recent incident involving the Aether Foundation, Ultra-wormholes have been appearing over the skies of Alola. Considering your involvement with that incident I must inform you that you are now a 'Faller'. Put simply, because you passed through an Ultra-wormhole your body has absorbed some of the energy it emits. Ergo, Ultra Beasts will be attracted to you, thinking that you are a wormhole."

Guzma stared at him in disbelief before saying, "Wh-… what?! You're kidding right?!"

"I am surely not! I must urge you to be vigilant whilst the International Police are dealing with the Ultra Beasts. Keep on your toes! Now… Oh! Before I forget!" Looker rummaged through his pockets before taking out an orange medicine bottle. "This is for you. Though your contact with UB-01 was brief, a small amount of its toxins may still be present in your body. Please complete the entire script; it will counteract any remaining poison."

Guzma eyed the bottle briefly before taking it from him, there was a white card with a phone number taped to it. "One sec, before ya go… Hold your hand out." Looker complied, Guzma dropped five unarmed Beast balls into his hand before saying, "I want nothin' to do with this. Ya hear? I'm done with all this Ultra Beast and wormhole crap. So don't come to me askin' for favors or nothin', got it old man?"

"Yes, I do. I completely understand. This is quite the harrowing situation we are in. Please stay safe. If you encounter any more Ultra Beasts please call the number on that card. Au revoir!" Before either of them could get another word in Looker had resumed running up the track.

Donnie was highly confused as the two of them continued down the trail, but decided to stay quiet until he was sure the two of them were out of danger. Once they were back on the main road Guzma headed down Route 1 and flopped down onto the nearest bench, putting his head in his hands. Donnie sat down next to him and looked downwards; he put his glasses back on and traced the patterns on the green painted wood with his finger. He then glanced over at his teacher. "S-so… Um… Are you ok…?" he nervously asked.

Guzma exhaled. "I've been better, kid."

"Well… Uh, what was that thing…? I've never heard of a Pokémon like that before…"

He rested his hands on his lap and sat up straight before explaining, "that thing back there was a creature called an Ultra Beast. They're stupid-dangerous Pokémon from another dimension called Ultra Space. That one in particular is called a Nihilego."

"Um… Ok… Super dangerous inter-dimensional Pokémon… G-got it…" The boy adjusted his glasses before continuing, "But… How come you reacted like that to it? You wouldn't move… You beat it easily with that Scizor too…"

Guzma winced and put a hand in his hair before turning to his student. "Imma keep this short, but I've had a run-in with that thing before… I followed someone through one of the wormholes like a jackass and tried to catch it… But… It possessed me…"

Donnie's breath caught in his throat. "P-possessed…?"

"Yeah… Now I ain't scared of nothin' or no one kid… Nothin' but that thing…" A distant look came to his eyes. "When it possessed me my body started movin' on its own… I saw things, heard things; things that couldn't possibly have been there… I lashed out; I couldn't do nothin' but destroy shit and scream… It was terrifying… After it let me go I somehow managed to pull myself together before those two girls showed up, the ones that rescued me… Fuck that would've been embarrassing, actin' like a wreck in front of them…"

The young boy was pale now. "H-holy crap…" He made a mental note to buy Perry the most treats it had ever seen in its life.

"Yeah… Honestly that cop was prob'ly right about the poison still bein' in me… Ever since that happened I've just had this feelin'… This constant creeping dread; hope those pills get rid of that…" he admitted.

"I hope we never have to see any of those things again…"

"You shouldn't, not with-…" he paused, his eyes went wide. "Oh no… Oh fuck, fuck, _fuck_!"

"Wh-what?!"

The man gripped his hair tightly. "You remember what he said, right?! Apparently I'm a walkin' freak magnet now! I can't… I can't be around y'all… I'll just lure those monsters to the school and then… SHIT!"

"Woah, woah! Wait!" Guzma stopped and stared at him. "Didn't you see how quickly you got rid of it though?! You could protect us!"

"The damn principal can do the same thing!"

Donnie stood up on the chair and looked down at him, shouting, "No she couldn't! Remember what you told me?! You're the best bug type trainer in all of Alola! The BEST! And after seeing you fight off that thing with just one Pokémon I really believe that! Not to mention you actually know about those things and what they can do! Besides, they might just show up without you there anyway! No one can protect us better than you can! So please, stay!"

Guzma looked defeated and dropped his hands to his sides. "…Alright… Sid'down… On Monday y'all are gettin' one heck of a special lesson."

Donnie sighed in relief and sat back down.

"But… Donnie…" He reached over and gripped the boy's shoulders; there was an almost crazed look in his eyes as he warned, "if you ever see that monster again… Don't let it get you. It will find every little horrible thing you tried to bury deep down and shove it right in your face until it finally has you… And if it does manage to get you, don't let it break you…"

He began to tremble, but swallowed and nodded in response. "O-ok…"

Guzma let go of him, rubbed his eyes and stood up. "Let's just… Let's go to the Pokémon Centre… We gotta get that partner of yours fixed up…"

As the two of them walked Donnie ran his fingers through the spiked side of his hair. "Well… I-I guess at least one good thing came out of this… Perry _really_ started to shape up today…"

Guzma nodded. "Yeah. Yeah it did. I saw. It's a Pikachu now… I actually got somethin' in mind to help y'all out more, but ask me about that later, kid… I need to chill out before I try to do anymore thinking…"

Donnie grimaced as he remembered something. "There's… Something else I should tell you too… Nathan and Keahi are planning to pull a prank on you on Monday… A really nasty one…"

The man groaned. "That can wait too, tell me again later… I've had enough bullshit."

The young boy nodded as they approached the Pokémon Centre.

Guzma took a deep breath. "Just… Fuck… I need a tapu cocoa…"


	13. Chapter 13: (Mental) Health And Safety

It was the beginning of the new week. The entire class, bar Kalino, was sitting inside and waiting for their battle teacher to arrive. The majority of them were restless; excited to be let outside to practise training with their beloved Pokémon. Heck, Keahi was even wearing her special 'battle gear' in anticipation.

Donnie, however, was less than excited. The young boy sat stiffly in his chair, picking at his fingernails as he stared at what a number of the students around him were snickering about. Positioned carefully on top of the slightly ajar class door was a large bulging water balloon. Admittedly an innocent enough prank at first sight, but Donnie knew that wasn't the case. He just silently hoped that his teacher had remembered the warning he gave him. Though Guzma was still clearly stressed when he told him, the man had had his hot chocolate and was significantly calmer. There was no reason he wouldn't remember, right?

Heavy footsteps could be heard approaching from down the hall. Many of the students became quieter, snickering in anticipation. Donnie instead held his breath. The footsteps stopped outside the door, muffled speaking could be heard from the other side. From his position near the opposite back corner of the room the boy couldn't make out what was said. But he did see Amelia, who sat right beside the door, momentarily look confused before shuffling far backwards in her chair.

A broom handle then suddenly pushed the door open, sending the balloon crashing into the floor with a BANG. Sparks crackled as electrified water splashed all over the floor. The entire class watched wide-eyed, their smirks wiped clean off their faces, as smoke drifted upwards from the ground where the balloon landed.

Guzma then stormed into the room, gripping the broom he was holding tightly. Surprisingly, he was followed by Asuka, who proceeded to lean against the wall and watch him. "Imma give y'all two seconds to come clean about who put that there," he growled as he looked out over the class angrily. Donnie cringed and looked back at Keahi, one of the perpetrators, whose olive skin had gone a few shades paler. He did try to warn her when they forced him to set it up; a Pikachu's Thundershock was a lot stronger than she thought. Oh well, at least he warned Guzma before he ended up seriously hurt.

Guzma's lip curled into a menacing smile when he received no confessions. "Nobody? Alright then, that ain't a big deal considerin' I already know who did it," he sneered smugly, "the both of y'all are goin' with the principal once we're done here." He gestured to Asuka with his thumb; she smirked and waved in response. Keahi sunk down into her seat while Nathan looked at his feet, biting his lip.

He began to explain, "now we ain't goin' outside right now, cuz I got somethin' urgent that I need to share with y'all before we do anythin' else. So everyone needs to shut up and pay attention the whole time. But before all that, Curtis?"

The boy flinched to attention. "Um, yeah?"

"Can you get rid of this water for me? I don't wanna have'ta mop it up later," he requested.

Asuka shot Guzma a disappointed glare before seeing Curtis shrug and say, "fine, but I'm not gonna do this again." He held his hand out and lifted the water into a single large droplet. Yume opened the window, allowing her friend to release the liquid outside. Asuka blinked and quickly glanced between the window and Curtis, mentally noting to question the boy later.

Guzma took a marker out of his bag, saying, "fine, whatever, thanks."

He turned to write on the board before being interrupted by Amelia, "um, excuse me? Sir? I hope you don't mind me asking, but why is the principal here?"

Asuka then answered her, "because I decided to sit in on this lesson after speaking with him this morning. What he'll be covering today is extremely serious, something that I need to know as well for my own safety."

The young girl and many of her classmates looked at Guzma nervously after the principal's answer. The man just groaned in frustration. "Alright? Have we had enough chit-chat? 'Cuz we gotta get onto this. What I'm about to tell y'all could save your life one day."

"Go ahead then," commented Asuka.

Guzma then proceeded to write "ULTRA BEASTS" in large bold jagged letters across the top of the whiteboard before turning back to the class. "Now, does anyone in here but Donnie know what the heck an Ultra Beast is?"

Though he had intended that to be a rhetorical question, to his surprise Keahi slowly raised her hand. She was clearly a confident young girl, considering that she was fully aware of how angry he was at her. The young girl spoke up, "um… I'm not a hundred percent sure, but the people on the news kept saying that when talking about having to evacuate some popular touristy areas… They just kept saying they were really strong Pokémon though, is that what they are?"

"You're half right, kid. Ultra Beasts are stupid strong creatures sorta like Pokémon, but not exactly. Has anyone in here seen weird lights in the sky? Like cracks openin' up and stuff?" A few of the kids put their hands up. "Well that's called an Ultra-wormhole. They're huge portals to another dimension, these here monsters get flung outta them and run amok all over the place."

Before Guzma could continue explaining though, there was a snort from the back of the class. Iolana sat there chuckling as her teacher shot her a sharp glare and snapped, "somethin' funny 'bout this?"

Iolana looked at him with a nervous half-smile plastered on her face. "Did you finally snap or something, boss? Stupidly powerful inter-dimensional monsters? You can't be serious about all this, right? Cuz this all sounds like a load of crap."

Her teacher looked as though he was going to break the marker in his hand in half before Donnie spoke up, "n-no! 'Lana… He's not lying…" The entire class turned to face him; the boy froze for a moment and swallowed before gaining his composure. "We both got attacked by one two days ago… Perry only barely managed to hold it off before Guzma could defeat it… He's actually being serious about all this. So please, just listen, ok?"

The other students looked at each other apprehensively as Guzma gestured for Donnie to come up to the front. The young boy complied as his teacher handed him the marker and quietly spoke to him, "thanks for shootin' her down… You're a real great artist right? Can ya draw fast?"

"Uh… Yeah…"

"Then get ready to show off your skills, cuz I got somethin' for you to do," said Guzma before handing him his phone and muttering to him for a few moments. Donnie moved to the whiteboard as Guzma turned back to the class, only to see Yume with her hand up.

Just as she was about to speak though, Kalino rushed into the room with his Meowth clinging to his backpack, characteristically late. He flopped onto his chair and huffed, "what… did I… miss?" as his Pokémon slinked onto his lap.

Guzma rubbed his forehead momentarily. He didn't have time for this. "Nothin' too important. Just be quiet and listen. What's up, Yume?"

She adjusted her glasses and asked sceptically, "um, Mister? If all of this really is true, then how do you even know about it?"

Guzma folded his arms, he really didn't want to get into that, but he guessed that he didn't exactly have a choice. "I did some work for the Aether Foundation a lil' while back. They were studying these things. I was meant to catch a bunch of them, but that didn't exactly work out…" he briefly explained before continuing, "now no more questions. No more interruptin' me. Just listen."

Much to his displeasure Amelia began to look quite excited and fidget at the mention of that cursed foundation, she clearly had a million and one questions now. He leered at her momentarily before starting, "alright, so about these monsters. There are seven of the things I know about and they're all hella dangerous. Now, I don't know everythin' about them, but I do know what they look like and some of the stuff they can do. So I'd take notes if I were you."

The man looked back to the board to see if Donnie had done as he had asked. Sure enough, as requested, the boy had quickly drawn a Nihilego on the whiteboard. Guzma stepped aside so that everyone could see. "Now all of these have got proper names but I don't remember all of 'em, so we're just gonna go by code-names for this… That first one there is called Number One – Symbiont. It's about the size of y'all and is a lot more dangerous than it looks. If one of y'all is unlucky enough to come across one; get the heck outta there and don't let it catch you. That monster can possess people. It like, injects a poison that makes you freak out real bad so it can control ya. One of those things was up in the hills just a few days ago, so if someone tells ya to stay out of an area then don't be stupid; listen to them."

Guzma then gestured to the next two illustrations; Donnie was copying them from the scientific diagrams ahead of time. "Those next two are Number Two – Absorption and Number Three – Beauty. Tough as nails bug types those two; heaps tall as well… I was hopin' to get my hands on 'em myself, but that ain't happenin'… Apparently the big guy is super strong and the skinny one is super fast. If you come across one of those somehow, hide. 'Cuz trust me, you can't outrun 'em.

"Now next up is Number Four – Lightning… Electric type that shoots lightning everywhere, it's in the name. Now, if you come across that… Uh… I got nothin' honestly, if it attacks ya you're probably screwed, so check for any evacuation warnings before you go off explorin' and all that…

"So, then there's Number Five – Blade and Number Six – Blaster. Names are pretty self explanatory. Blade is like… Imagine if those lil' paper swords y'all've probably made at least once could cut through buildings. An' Blaster is like if some nutter tried buildin' a huge rocket ship outta bamboo, it's the size of one too.

"And now last up we've got Number Seven – Gluttony. Now I don't know much about this one, but what I do know is that it absolutely massive can eat literally anythin'. Watch for evac warnings, stay off that monster's menu.

"So that's all of 'em I know of and all I really know about them, which ain't really much, but it's better than nothin'. But the main take home message I wanted to give to y'all about this is…" said Guzma as he turned to the board, writing down his own personal phone number for everyone to see as Donnie headed back to his desk, "though they're pretty rare and there's always evac warnings… If ya'll end up comin' across one of these freaks, call me. Or text me or whatever. Seriously, plug that number into your phones. Also you gotta at least tell me where you are; which beast is chasin' ya would be great to know as well. But my point is that none of y'all can handle these monsters. So seriously, _call me,_ I will come and get'cha as fast as I can. Now, any questions?"

The class looked at one another, seeing if anyone would speak up. Kalino slowly raised his hand; he was sitting up dead straight in contrast to his usual relaxed slouch. "What if you…" he lowered his voice for a moment, "don't have a phone…? What do we do if we bump into a monster then…?"

"I'd say only go out to remote areas with at least one buddy then. One that has a phone," he recommended, "you've got friends, right?"

He grinned, "oh yeah, heaps!"

"Then just take 'em out with ya. Still, write down my number anyway."

The tired looking boy nodded and began to copy down the number, his Meowth purring in his lap.

Amelia's hand then shot into the air, there was a huge smile on her face; she looked like she was going to squeal. Guzma nodded at her and then to his surprise, she stood up, clasping her hands together in front of chest. She then began to speak quickly, "oh my gosh. Please please _PLEASE_ tell me the kind of work you did for Aether! What were they researching in regards to these amazing sounding creatures? Were they going to house them? Return them to their native dimension? Were they going to train them like we do with Pokémon? Were they going to explore this new dimension? Why did they even hire you in the first place? I thought they had a strict dress code? Also were they-"

Guzma quickly interrupted, "woah woah woah! Stop! You're flingin' a million and one questions at me and I don't know the answer to any of 'em!"

Her excited expression did not fade. "Well then you can at least share what kind of work you did for them, teacher! Please! You said you were supposed to catch these things, was that your job there?"

A scowl spread across the man's face in response. "I ain't allowed to talk about it. Classified stuff and all that." Though that was true, Guzma did not care in the slightest about those regulations, he simply didn't want to talk to her about it.

"Well… Then can you at least give me some pointers later please? About their base, daily routine, rules, job options, anything!" she begged.

He grumbled to himself before saying, "ok, maybe, fine. Later. Don't expect much though."

Amelia squealed a quiet 'yes!' to herself before sitting back down.

Guzma then sat back on his desk hunched over. "Anyone else?"

Nobody responded for about twenty seconds. However, just as he was about to resume speaking, Minnie raised her hand. "Sir, it looks like there are no more questions... So what are we going to do now? There's over half the lesson left…"

Oh crap, he didn't expect to finish this quickly. He scratched his undercut and said, "well I gotta give somethin' out to y'all. Then I want y'all to take photos of each of the beasts and then we'll all go out and practise for Wednesday. 'Cept for the class pranksters of course, y'all're goin' with Asuka." Minnie nodded as Nathan huffed angrily to himself. "All I gotta give ya is some assignment on different types of Pokeballs. I had a glance at it; it's the easiest thing I've ever seen. Trust me, the world's dumbest Magikarp could do it, you'll be fine. But if ya do get stuck somehow just ask. So come grab it and we'll go."

Most of the class rushed to the front post-haste, followed their teacher's instructions and quickly headed out the door, eager to go outside. Except for three. Guzma watched with a smug sneer on his face as Nathan and Keahi were escorted from the room by Asuka, the sound of the older woman shutting down their excuses was like music to his ears. The man then rose to his feet and collected his belongings, only to turn and see Jon standing directly in front of him.

He glanced around the room before looking down at the boy, casually asking as he began to head off, "what's up, kid? Ya want somethin'?"

Jon followed beside him, shoving his hands in his pockets before he shrugged and mumbled, "Not really… I just don't have anything to do for the rest of the lesson. I can already get Stufful to do pretty much anything, so I don't need to practice. I was kinda hoping if we could just chat? Is that ok?"

Guzma grinned a little. "Yeah that's chill with me; everyone looks like they'll be all good by themselves anyway."

The boy's eyes lit up as he smiled, Guzma gently patted his back. How this kid went out of his way to spend time with him always managed to warm his heart. Jon then asked curiously, "so, I know that lesson was really important and all, but what brought it on? That kinda just came out of nowhere… Did you see warnings on the TV like Keahi did?"

Guzma exhaled as they headed down the stairs and explained, "Donnie and I got attacked by one on Saturday. I went to help him out with his naughty-ass Pichu and in the middle of it the worst outta of all of those freaks, a Symbiont, came out of the bushes." He pushed the front doors open and headed outside before shooting Jon a confident smile, "wasn't a big deal though, I beat that bastard down easy."

Jon grinned and exclaimed, "that would've been so cool to watch! I wish I could've been there to see it…"

Guzma looked away awkwardly as he sat down on a bench against the wall, facing the rest of the class. "Nah… Wasn't much of a fight to be honest… The thing was just that weak, prob'bly a baby one."

Jon sat beside him. "Well, I still bet you would've looked awesome smashing it into the dust!"

He gave the boy a cocky smirk, saying, "you bet'cha I did. Donnie and his Pichu were pretty fuckin' cool too, his Pokémon evolved as well. Guess the experience it got from that fight gave it the push it needed."

The boy looked out at the other students and said, "I guess… Hey, can I ask a question?"

"Fire away."

"Well, what _did_ you do for the Aether Foundation? I heard they were really prissy and formal and stuff… You don't fit their type at all…"

Guzma glowered at that question. "I thought Amelia was gonna be the one pressin' me on this, not you."

Jon whimpered quietly and took hold of his own arm. "Well, I mean, I'm just trying to get to know you a bit better… I'm really just asking what you did before becoming a teacher, because you're really vague about all that… You know a bunch about me, but I really don't know a whole lot about you, Guzma."

Guzma glanced between the boy beside him and the rest of the class. They seemed far enough away for him to be a little more open. He then sighed and asked, "you know how to keep your mouth shut, don'cha?"

Jon tilted his head curiously. "You mean keep a secret? Yeah, why?"

"Cuz I don't want you blurtin' any of what I'm gonna tell ya out to anyone else. You gotta understand Jon, I ain't exactly the best guy out there, all I got to tell ya is the bad shit I did…"

He looked a bit confused now. "What do you mean bad things? You're not a bad person…"

Guzma chuckled bitterly. "Goes to show how little you really know me."

"That's why I'm asking… So… What was Aether like?"

"Cruel, hella shady and extremely two-faced."

"What…? But they don't seem that way…"

"That's what 'two-faced' means. Apparently they've been shapin' up, but when I was workin' for them that's what they were like," he stated.

Jon brought his knees to his chest and looked up at his teacher. "What did you do for them, then? Try to catch those Ultra Beasts for them like you said?"

"Heh. No. I just wanted to do that so I could stomp every last trainer in Alola. What they really wanted me to do was draw attention away from their shady-ass schemes."

"Schemes?"

"Yeah, they did a lotta cruel experiments on Pokémon under the radar. I just had to collect those Pokémon for them while makin' sure they didn't look like the bad guys."

A shocked expression crossed Jon's face, before settling into one of sadness. "Why would you do that…? That's horrible…"

The man sighed. "Gotta eat somehow, kid. And feedin' a lil' over sixty teenagers on top of that it is a lot harder than ya think."

"Uh… What are you talkin' about."

"Oh shit. I forgot you don't know, huh?"

Jon furrowed his eyebrows. "Don't know what?"

"I'm the boss of Team Skull, kid. Well, I was until I disbanded it."

His eyes widened. "Woah… You mean that gang of teenagers, right? The one everyone makes fun of?"

Guzma's expression darkened. "Don't talk shit about my team…"

Jon put his hands up in front of him. "I-I wasn't!"

He leaned back against the wall, looking visibly calmer. "Well, long story short, the Aether Foundation sponsored Team Skull to keep everyone's eyes off of them and on us instead. It was a great deal, don't get me wrong. We needed that cash badly. Fuck, we were lucky the power plant was nice enough to keep the lights on for free…"

The boy then grew quite curious. "What kinds of things did Team Skull do?"

"Steal shit mostly, vandalize, screw up trials, scare people, the works."

"From what I've heard… You weren't really that scary…"

Guzma snickered. "Oh my grunts weren't, for sure. But me and Plumeria? Go look up our names, mine in particular. You'll see just how much everyone hates us."

Jon tilted his head. "Why would people hate you? You seem nice… I mean most of the time."

"Jon, imma put it to you bluntly, I'm an asshole. I went outta my way to make things difficult for a lot of people. I scare people too…" an awkward look then crossed his face as he scratched his undercut, "and… Well… I know I got a problem, with gettin' mad and stuff… I get real loud, I break shit, I trashed the mansion back in Po town more times than I can count… You haven't seen me at my worst yet, bud… That's somethin' I never want ya to see… "

He looked down at the ground for a moment before saying, "yeah… I can tell… But, you're trying to fix that, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"You… Never hurt anyone, did you?"

He shook his head. "Nah... I trashed objects, not people. I don't like hittin' folks. As much as my grunts always fucked things up I never once…" he paused for a moment before growing frustrated, "wait. Oh fucking hell. That's a lie… I punched a grunt, once."

"Uh… What happened then…?" asked Jon apprehensively.

Guzma gripped his hair with one hand. "A couple months back I got my ass handed to me by an eleven year old. Now that wouldn't be so bad, cuz then I could've just trained up and smashed her later. But that battle wasn't any ol' run of the mill fight. I was 'sposed to be battlin' Professor Kukui, but he sent that little girl out instead… I talked real fuckin' big but in the end I couldn't walk the walk. I lost in front of him, a bunch'a grunts and a huge crowd. That was one of the most humiliatin' things that's ever happened to me. You have no idea how pissed I was at myself… And then I'm fumin' in my room and this grunt comes in to report to me that he flubbed a mission real bad, an important one too… And I just snapped… And he was there… So I decked him…"

A long silence hung in the air between them as Guzma tugged on his hair. Jon shifted in his seat, trying to think over what he just heard. "You… Um... Well… If he never set you off in the first place he wouldn't have gotten punched…"

The man slowly turned to look at him. "Excuse me?"

The boy's eyes widened and he stammered bit, "I-I mean… I-I'm just saying… He shouldn't have messed that up and made you madder…"

"Are you tryin' to say he deserved that?"

"N-no! I-I… I-I just…"

Guzma glared down at him and spoke coldly, "y'know, I've been startin' to notice a bit of a trend here… Take those little fuckin' rose coloured glasses off your face right now and stop makin' excuses for people... He didn't deserve that at all! I was bein' a dick and lashin' out when I shouldn't have! The worst part though?! Back then I thought exactly what you did! That I was right, that he deserved it! Well guess what?! I wasn't!" Jon stared up at him and shook as Guzma lowered his voice and looked back towards the rest of the class. "The worst part though…? Lookin' back… I think I was turnin' into the person I hate the most…"

Jon slowly gripped the edge of his shirt to quell the shakiness in his hands as his breath hitched; the new silence between them was almost unbearable.

"…Jon?"

The boy flinched. "M-Mmm?"

"Go back over to the others… Help Iolana with her Wingull or somethin'… I dunno… Just go…"

His lip trembled a little. "O-ok… I-I'm sorry…" He then stood up and turned back to his teacher. "I-I can still come for lunch… Right?"

"Yeah."

Jon then looked at his feet and quietly asked, "w-we're still friends… Right…?"

Guzma's sombre expression turned to one of shock. He thought of him as a friend? "…Yeah, we're friends."


	14. Chapter 14: Picture Perfect

Guzma took a deep breath, inhaling the salty sea breeze as he strolled down the coastal road. He squinted as a small amount of sand was kicked up by the wind, reopening his eyes only to spot his Masquerain flying above the path ahead of him. It hovered just out of reach of a familiar pink teddy Pokémon, which was leaping in the air in an attempt to catch it.

…

The previous week proved to be quite a productive one. Everyone had managed to pass the assessment on communicating with their Pokémon the previous day, the majority with flying colours. Hence, next week it was time to begin the section on Pokémon moves. Guzma had no clue why they just couldn't start this week. Apparently the principal was waiting on somebody to become available. Who _cares_? Guzma already had an excellent grasp on moves, he didn't need some bozo to swoop in and mess up everything he had planned. Now because of that he had to stall for two days, he decided on giving two lessons on super-effective and not so effective type matchups. Bor-ring. He had already given the first lesson and it was so convoluted that he was sure that nobody would remember matchups that weren't specific to their own Pokémon. Realistically it would take the class a few years of experience to become familiar with type matchups outside of what they specialize in, but he needed to teach them something nonetheless.

What he thought was simple however, was the assignment that he had given them previously. Apparently not according to Jon. The boy was seemingly having a lot of trouble and left it until the night before it was due to ask for any help. Not to mention he left the entire damn thing at home. It took a full day of pleading, but Jon had managed to convince his teacher to help him out at home that same afternoon. Guzma had always thought that he would be the type to just say 'tough shit, you're on your own' and leave it there, but there was something about these stupid kids that gave them an iron grip on his soul. Hence the man found himself reluctantly walking down a new narrow road beside a secluded beach with Jon by his side, leading him towards his own home.

Guzma looked out at the waves; they were lazily lapping against the sand on this cool Thursday afternoon. They looked about as tired as he felt, though he wasn't sure how that was possible. He heard Jon chuckle beside him, the boy was watching their Pokémon play together ahead of them. The bear was clearly no match for the speed of the moth-like Pokémon, lucky for it; his bug probably would've sent it flying if the Stufful accidently smacked it.

He glanced down at his student and calmly asked, "so when are we gonna get there? We've been walkin' for twenty minutes already and I ain't ever seen this road before."

"A couple minutes, we're really close. Actually, we're pretty much on my driveway right now," said Jon cheerfully.

Guzma cocked an eyebrow. "What? There ain't no house in sight though."

"It's just around the corner there, by the cliff."

He looked ahead of them. The road indeed turned out of view around the grey-blue rocky cliff side ahead of them. Apprehensiveness began to build in Guzma's chest at the realization of how close they were to his house; he was quick to shove that feeling down out of sight. He was at least grateful that his shiner had completely faded this week before he had to come here. The man ran his fingers through his hair and asked Jon, "So… Do I look alright? I mean I look fuckin' great most'a the time, but, do I look alright?"

The boy smiled and replied, "you look the same as you always do."

"Yeah, but that's fine right? Aren't your parents the real posh sort? Doubt they'd be happy with ya bringin' someone like me over, teacher or not."

Jon's smile then faded as he looked towards their Pokémon. "That doesn't matter, no one's home anyway."

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah. Trust me, they're not home. But that means we get the house to ourselves!"

"I thought someone was gonna be there. Jon, kid, I'm all for bein' a rebel but ya can't just go invitin' random teachers over without them there! That's just stupid! Do they even know I'm comin' over?"

His neutral expression didn't waver. "Nope."

Guzma stared at him in disbelief. "Holy shit… Kid. Look. I ain't gonna turn around 'cuz we're nearly there and I promised you, but doin' this could get ya in all sorts'a trouble. This is fuckin' dangerous. You're eleven; someone could hurt ya real bad."

"That's not what you said to Hayley, or Minnie, or Donnie," Jon said with a knowing smirk.

"Y-… Yeah, but that's different! They weren't invitin' random strangers over to their places alone!"

"You're not a random stranger though. And no, it's not different at all."

"You still shouldn't. Fuck, I would've robbed ya outta house and home if you did this with me a couple months ago!"

Jon snickered. "But you're not going to, that's my point!"

"I know I'm not, but that don't matter. I'm not talkin' 'bout me, I'm talkin' 'bout other people!"

"But you just said-…" the boy then placed a hand on his forehead and sighed, "Guzma, you're being a hypocrite."

"A hippo-what?"

"It means you say one thing then do the exact opposite… I'm not dumb, I know you won't hurt me, it doesn't even matter anyway..."

The man groaned in frustration. "I know you're not dumb. But ya get my point, right?"

He rubbed his arm subconsciously and shrugged. "Yeah… I guess… There's not too much of a point there though, I mean, we meet alone nearly every lunch to hang out."

"That doesn't count."

Jon burst out laughing at the absurdity of that comment. The two of them continued to bicker like this for a few more minutes before rounding the corner, bringing the boy's house into view. Guzma stopped dead in the middle of the road, gawking. In front of him was a very modern, large and clearly expensive house built directly into the side of the cliff. Its colours complimented the rock-face well and there was a tall set of stairs leading to the front entrance. He followed Jon, up the stairs and to the front door, studying the home in amazement. Guzma paused to look at the landing pad beside the front door as Jon headed inside, followed by Masquerain, his parents likely took Charizards to work judging by the claw marks on the pad.

Guzma followed the boy inside and was met with a large open foyer; the house was mostly a clean smooth white on the inside with many expensive looking ornaments, décor and certificates on display, but a surprising lack of photos. Considering Guzma was used to rural and old Alolan buildings, the current modern design made him feel as though he had stepped through a portal to some kind of futuristic alien place. The last time he felt this way was when he stepped inside Aether Paradise for the first time, he thought that nothing could top that, but Jon's house sure was giving it a run for its money.

He blinked when he realized he was alone, only to spy his bug flutter through an open doorway. He followed the creature into what was clearly the kitchen and dining area. Jon was pouring his Stufful some pokefood when he looked up at his teacher. "You can look around if you want, or sit down, I don't mind."

"A'ight…" Guzma then proceeded to mosey about the large room with his hands on his hips, he stopped to look at a single photo on the wall in particular. There was a familiar looking young boy standing between a prideful looking couple, they had their hands on his shoulders and were dressed very formally. Guzma frowned; nobody was smiling. He then turned after spying movement out of the corner of his eye; Masquerain was hovering precariously close to a rather expensive looking vase. He winced and quickly returned the Pokémon to its ball, the last thing he wanted was to be several million Poke in debt.

Jon then placed a large platter on the table behind his teacher and sat down, prompting the man to turn. Guzma stopped and stared longingly at its contents; the platter was full of some of the most delicious looking sushi he had ever seen, it looked similar in quality to those prepared at Sushi High Roller. He glanced back and forth between the food and his student, who just smiled at him and offered, "Have as much as you want, there's plenty here."

Guzma paused for a moment before accepting, "Uh, sure… Thanks…" and sat down awkwardly beside Jon, eyeing the sushi like it was about to disappear in a moment's notice. He glanced at his student, who was eating contently, yet seemed a little apathetic towards the meal. For a moment he wasn't sure how to feel about taking his offer, but then remembered the house they currently sat in, there was no way that boy would go hungry. He slowly reached over, taking a piece of sashimi and popping it into his mouth. Considering that Guzma could probably fill an entire house with the amount of cup noodles he had eaten over the past few years; that single piece of sashimi was one of the most delicious things he had ever tasted. His admittedly poor sense of social etiquette completely fell away as he began stuffing his face with as much sushi as he could get his hands on. There was no way he was going to pass up that offer now.

"Hey! Slow down! You're going to choke!" Jon quickly exclaimed, his eyes wide with concern. Guzma froze, staring at the boy with bulging cheeks and an almost frenzied look in his eyes. Jon scratched his neck a little before sliding the platter over to his teacher. "Look, you don't have to rush… It's not going to go away anytime soon… I'm not really hungry anyway…"

His teacher then swallowed and asked, eyes wide with amazement, "alright, alright. But holy shit, kid, do ya eat this stuff every day? This is fuckin' amazing!"

The boy shrugged. "It's ok I guess… And no, something different gets left for me every day. So I get a new surprise every time I come home!"

Guzma smirked, taking another nori roll. "Damn, that sound great! Shame you gotta share somethin' this good with a guy like me though, I ain't seen nothin' even half this good in years!"

"I'm just happy I get to share it with anyone at all…" Jon smiled up at him; it clearly didn't reach his eyes.

He paused just as he was about to take a bite and frowned. "You ok?"

Jon flinched slightly and gave an awkward half-grin. "Yeah! Just fine! Hurry up alright? You're here to help me aren't you?"

"Oh crap, yeah, I almost forgot about that," he said before proceeding to finish over half the platter as fast as he could. Jon was a hundred percent sure he would regret that later.

After quickly putting the remaining food back in the fridge, the young boy picked up his Stufful and gestured for Guzma to follow him down a hall. The walls and roof soon smoothly transitioned into a polished part of the cliff that the house was built into. "So… I would show you around the rest of the house, but there's nothing much else to see really. The only other place I really go is the music room."

The man peeled his eyes away from the walls to ask, "music room?"

"Yeah! I practise piano in there. Can you play anything?" he asked curiously.

"Nope, nothin', he replied, " I'm hella good at dancing though."

Jon smiled before stopping in front of a closed door. "Does everyone else say that? Or just you? Because I think I'm good at dancing too, but I've never done it in front of anyone else..."

Guzma folded his arms and puffed out his chest with a smug smirk. "I got a whole team backin' me on that front. Well, had a whole team. Still counts. You should show me your skills sometime; I doubt you could beat me though."

The boy chuckled and opened the door, his Stufful wriggled out of his arms and bounded into the room. "I don't need to beat you! We don't even practise the same style! I do swing, well I try to, and you do hip-hop! They're nothing alike!"

He followed Jon inside suggesting, "we should still have a dance off at some point, get a bunch'a the other kids in on it, that'd be cool as hell!"

"You'd probably just wallop us, if you're not just talking yourself up that is," he commented before sitting down in his computer chair.

Guzma didn't reply, instead he stood in the doorway, taking in the almost living room sized space in front of him. The first thing he was hit with was a blast of pink. Pastel pink walls and bed sheets, followed by hot pink pillows and bean bags; there was no need to ask Jon's favourite colour. He entered the room, surveying the area curiously. A long desk stretched across almost the entirely of the right wall in front of him, it was an absolute mess. On the middle of it were two monitors and a large desktop computer. Strewn across the remainder of the desk's length were various pieces of Pokémon related technology that had been pulled apart, put back together or altered in some way, plus many open textbooks and chocolate bar wrappers. There was a large bookcase beside the doorway, filled with various technology and science related books, sheet music, guides on Pokémon care and countless preteen adventure novels. Beside the bookcase sat a PC box, it was an older model and appeared to be turned off. In the right corner of the room was a large TV and WIIU in front of a number of bean bags. In the left corner was Jon's bed, half of it was covered in pillows and poke dolls, Stufful was curled up amongst the dolls, rendering it almost indistinguishable from them. On the walls over the boy's bed and desk were posters of various movies and bands that Guzma didn't recognize, along with a digitally drawn picture of Jon and his Porygon surfing through cyberspace. It was likely he paid somebody to create that picture for him.

Jon felt his hands start to shake as he watched his teacher look around his room. Sure, his sense of taste clearly didn't align with Guzma's, but he shouldn't hate it, right? The boy swallowed and nervously asked, "uh… so… What do you think…?"

Guzma then turned to him with a huge grin on his face. "Holy shit, kid, you've got damn near everythin' here don'cha? Dammit, why couldn't ya have been around when I was your age? I never would've left!"

The boy beamed at him from his seat. "Really? Thank you! And that would've been so cool… Actually, what did you look like when you were a kid?"

He paused, looking quite puzzled before scratching his head. "Dunno, I can't remember, it's been a real long time and I didn't stop to look at any of the pictures at my parent's place... I didn't have white hair though, that's for sure. There's prob'ly some old photos collectin' dust in the school somewhere though, but I ain't bringing them out, if you wanna see twelve year old me's stupid mug ya gotta dig that out yourself."

Jon chuckled before his smile slowly faded. "You know, I would love a brother… Or a sister… Either would've been great."

Guzma then commented, "you'd probably have more in common with a girl, if you had a sister I would've thought this was her room, like damn."

The boy shrugged and slowly nudged his chair to spin with his foot.

Guzma then moved beside him and gestured to the mess all over Jon's desk and asked curiously, "so what's all this stuff about? It just looks like a buncha nonsense to me…"

"Oh! That's all tech to do with Pokémon that I took apart. Pokeballs, dexes, some battle items… There's stuff for my PC box too, it's been getting old and broke down about a month ago," Jon said, his cheerful expression turning into a frown, "I've been trying my best to fix it but nothing's been working… That's actually why I haven't got Porygon with me right now… I know there's a PC box in the Pokémon centre, but I've been using it to try and motivate myself. Nowadays though I kinda just want to give up on fixing the thing…"

Guzma shook his head. "No no, you just haven't been goin' about this the right way by the looks of it. Y'know what you really gotta do when some machine messes up on you?"

Jon tilted his head as his teacher headed over beside the PC box. "No. What?"

"Just give it a nice hard" -the man raised his arm- "SMACK!" Guzma brought his fist down onto the box with impressive force, smashing the top of it in. Jon gaped as his teacher stared at his own hand, surrounded by twisted metal. Guzma felt the blood drain from his face; he pulled his hand back, clenching and unclenching his fist. He glanced back and forth between his student and the machine as he tried to form words. Panic rose up in his chest, but just as he began to reach for his hair Jon started to laugh. He looked at the boy in confusion, he was absolutely cracking up.

He was gasping for breath between giggles, trying to get words in. "Y… You… A-actually… Thought… Ahahaha… That would work?!"

Guzma dropped his hands back down by his sides in astonishment and slowly looked from the broken PC box back to Jon, who was catching his breath. "…You're not mad at me…? Seriously? But I just broke your shit!"

Jon giggled for a moment before pulling himself together enough to exclaim, "No! Don't worry about it! You just gave me a reason to get it replaced anyway! Just don't try that again, clearly your method doesn't work as well as you thought!"

His teacher opened his mouth to speak, but then decided against it. He shoved his hands in his pockets and moped back to the boy's side. "…Sorry 'bout that…Y'sure you ain't mad…?"

"Yep. It's no big deal; I can still use it for parts anyway."

Guzma hunched over, he looked far more reserved now. He asked quietly, "So… What's the point of all this anyway? The tech everywhere? You just like playin' around with it?"

Jon sat up straight in his seat and grinned. "Yeah I do! But I do want to make something out of all this. Mom and Dad want me to take over their business but everything they do puts me to sleep. So when I'm older I want to create the next line of Pokémon trainer technology! New PC boxes, cool new pokedexes, actual affordable pokeballs with a hundred percent capture rates, nearly limitless compact storage devices, portable Pokémon speakers for better communication between trainers and their Pokémon, the list is endless! I think working for the Devon Corporation would be perfect for me actually.

"And you know what's one of the best parts? I think choosing to go to the school on Melemele was one of the best things I could've done to help me with this! I've never trained Pokémon properly before going there or even thought of becoming a real trainer, but now I'm starting to understand what trainers might actually want out of their equipment! Becoming a great trainer is going to help me so much more than I thought it would! So thank you… I know it's just your job Guzma, but everything you've done for me so far is really helping! Thank you so much!"

Guzma stared, his cheeks flushed pink. He couldn't stop himself from smiling as he rubbed the back of his neck and turned away slightly. "Fuck… I… I dunno what to say to that… Thanks, for puttin' a bit of faith in me I guess… It's good to hear I'm actually doin' somethin' right for once… I'm tryin' my best to not mess this whole thing up for y'all…"

"You're doing an awesome job, trust me! I have so many new ideas now… I was thinking of incorporating a program into a new Pokedex that can track a Pokémon's vitality in real time, rather than trainers having to guess when it's running out of steam. That way people can plan ahead a lot better in battles because they know their Pokémon's limits a lot more accurately! Oh! I was also thinking of-"

As Jon continued to list off idea after idea Guzma scanned around the mess on the boy's desk, spying a large variety of Poke balls that had been tinkered with in some way, one was even in a thick glass case. He narrowed his eyes and cut his student off, "One second… This is real interestin' and all that, but I gotta ask; if you're such a damn genius at this sorta thing why do ya want my help on a piss-easy assignment on different poke ball types? You prob'ly know more about them than me!"

Jon's excited smile turned to an awkward one. "I… Just wanted you to check it over for me?"

Guzma didn't look convinced. "Lemme see it."

The boy logged into his computer and brought the assignment up on the screen, he moved to perch himself on the desk as Guzma sat down. He read through the entire paper, quietly mumbling the words to himself. After a few minutes he turned to Jon and said, "It's perfect."

The boy shrugged.

"It's perfect; seriously, I didn't even know that shit about those 'apricorn' things. You should've been able to tell how good it is, it's all finished too… You didn't need me to check it at all. So why the hell am I here?"

Jon frowned and looked away, fiddling with his shirt.

Guzma leaned closer and pressed him further, "Jon. Why am I here?"

Jon looked at his feet and mumbled, "I wanted to talk to you about something… I didn't think school was the right place…"

Guzma's serious expression softened, now he was concerned. "…Is somethin' the matter?"

The boy took a shaky breath and brought his knees to his chest, resting his arms on them. For about a minute he didn't reply before slowly beginning to speak, "Is… is it ok, to still feel bad, even though no one has done anything directly to hurt you…?"

Guzma furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

He visibly began to shake. "I… I-I've been thinking more about what you said... About me m-making excuses… I-I just… I just wanted to see the good in people… B-because th-they haven't done anything to me… B-But that's the problem… I-I'm not being yelled at or hurt but I still feel so horrible…"

The man slowly leaned in and asked, worried, "Jon, I'm not following… What exactly's goin' on?"

Jon bit his lip as tears started to well up in his eyes. "I… M-Mom and D-Dad… T-they don't talk to me… A-A little bit in the morning sometimes but m-most of the time I'm so alone… I-I thought that was normal b-but… I-I've been listening to some of the others… K-Kavika's dad always takes him and his sister to the beach on weekends… A-And Keahi… H-her parents are always busy too… Sh-she lives with her grandma and never sees them… B-But, they always call her every night a-and I barely get that and I-I just…" he looked at his teacher, tears streaking down his cheeks, "A-am I selfish Guzma? Th-they work so hard and I-I have so much because of them… B-but all this junk just feels… L-Like nothing… I-It might as well not be here… Did… d-did I do something wrong? Am I bad person…? I-Is that why they don't… D-don't talk to me…? W-would it make a difference if I just… wasn't here?"

Guzma was gripping the arms of the office chair, his knuckles had turned white. He let go of them, closed his eyes and took a breath before speaking softly, "…Of course it makes a difference… I'm not good at anythin' like this… Sayin' words and all that… But if you weren't here I… Well, I'll put it this way… My life sucks; I can count all the good things in it on one hand… And how you always try to talk to me and all that, particularly out in the woods, despite tickin' me off sometimes you honestly make my day… You're anythin' but a bad person, Jon… You deserve way better than this, and better friends than me…"

Jon looked away, he didn't seem to know what to think.

Guzma slowly held his arms out towards him. "Hey… Come here… It's ok…"

The boy looked back towards him; he gently climbed into his teacher's open arms, leaning into his hug. Guzma held him close, feeling tears prick at the corners of his eyes as the young boy began to sob into his chest. He blinked them away, only to then feel a light pawing on his leg. The man looked down to see a small pink teddy Pokémon looking up at its trainer. He gestured to it, prompting the Stufful to jump into his lap and curl up in its trainer's arms.

They remained like that for some time, until Jon calmed down and moved out of his arms. Guzma stayed over for a while after that, just to make sure he was really ok. The boy even set up some video games for them to play together to lighten the mood. But soon the sun had set, and it was time for him to leave.

Guzma walked out onto the porch after saying goodbye and was about to head down the stairs and Jon leaned on the doorway and mumbled, "You know… You don't have to go if you want… There's spare rooms and stuff…"

The man cringed and turned to him, an uncomfortable expression on his face. "Yeah, no… I know you hate bein' alone and stuff, but that ain't happenin'. Ever."

The boy shrugged. "Why not?"

"There's like… A line here… Y'all can't see it, but you don't cross it… Sleepin' here would be pushin' it big time, kid. So no…" Jon looked extremely disappointed before Guzma rubbed the back of his neck and spoke up again. "But you have my number… So you can just call me if ya wanna talk… Not like I got anyone else to speak to anyway…"

A small smile crossed Jon's face, he nodded.

"Alright then… 'Night kid."

"Goodnight…"


	15. Chapter 15: Play Nice

**Author's note: A HUGE thank you to cowsaresushi/coral-draws for gifting me the awesome new cover image for this fic! Please go check them out on tumblr and deviantart!**

It was a quiet, chilly Monday morning. The light of the sun could barely be seen poking through the overcast sky. Guzma leisurely strolled onto the school grounds after stopping by the Pokémon centre, tapu cocoa in hand. It was far too early for this shit. The principal told him to show up at least an hour before everyone else in order to meet the specialist he would be working with. That made sense; it was a pretty reasonable request to be honest, except for the fact that the man had to drag himself off of his mattress much earlier than he would've liked.

Seriously, why couldn't she have organized this meeting on the weekend instead? Everything was still wet from the morning dew and he had no time to let his damp hair dry after showering. Guzma looked and felt like an absolute mess; he was definitely not a morning person. He clearly wasn't going to make a good first impression on the specialist, but he had stopped caring; his current state was Asuka's fault after all, she can live with it.

He took a sip of his hot cocoa as he entered the building, leaving wet footprints as he headed up the stairs. The weekend had been quite boring to be honest, but it wasn't as if he had nothing to do; he had assignments to mark, Pokémon to train and the entire week to plan out. Planning, however, had nearly put him to sleep on more than one occasion. Sure, Guzma didn't _have_ to plan out the entire week in advance, he did have that guide after all, but being prepared can save a lot of trouble in the future.

It wasn't all boring though, after all Jon had called him each day, the boy was very eager to chat. Guzma enjoyed their little talks; it felt great to have contact with someone outside of anything business related, even if he was just a kid. Though there are much worse things than being alone, that didn't mean that Guzma didn't miss seeing his friends; one certain friend in particular actually. He quickly buried that thought, however, as to not put himself in a depressed mood.

The young man paused in front of the door to Asuka's office and yawned before entering. The woman perked up in her chair and smiled as she welcomed him, "good morning Guzma, you look well."

Was… Was that a joke? He looked at her puzzled and said, "yeah, I guess?"

"You may take a seat if you'd like," she requested, gesturing to one of the chairs in front of her desk, "my apologies for not having this meeting organized for last week, our move specialist had important business that he just couldn't worm his way out of."

"It's alright," he said. It wasn't, but he wasn't about to say that to her. Guzma flopped down into a chair and sank right back into it, sipping his hot drink. Clearly the specialist wasn't here yet. Asuka just quietly tapped her fingers together as they waited.

About a minute went by and yet it felt like an eternity to Guzma, the awkward silence was unbearable. He turned to the principal and asked, "hey, Asuka? This person's getting here soon right?" The day would already be off to a terrible start if Guzma had to drag himself to work over an hour early only for the person to be late.

"He should be inviting himself in any minute now," she assured, waiting patiently.

The man just grunted impatiently and moved to take another drink of his tapu cocoa, but before the cup touched his lips he froze. Hang on a second. Inviting himself in. An important person. Move specialist. Guzma almost dropped the cup right there. He mentally kicked his perpetually exhausted brain for not piecing this together last week.

He quickly turned to Asuka and opened his mouth to speak, only to flinch at a knock on the door behind him. The principal sat up straight and smiled brightly as she called out, "come in!"

Kukui spoke cheerfully as he opened the door, "hey there, Teach! It's a bit chilly out this morning, yeah? Shouldn't matter though, so who's the new… guy…" The professor froze in the doorway; the friendly smile on his had turned to an expression of utter shock and horror.

Guzma snorted and took a sip of what little tapu cocoa he had left to stop himself from bursting out laughing there and then. If he could, Guzma would've framed this moment in time to forever remember the stupid look on Kukui's face. He flashed a nasty grin at the professor and folded his arms across his chest. "What's with that look Kukui? Can't believe that ya boy made it somewhere, huh?"

Kukui looked at him in confusion and began to try and put a sentence together. He was quickly interrupted by Asuka loudly clearing her throat, prompting both of them to look at her. She could see exactly where this was heading and was not about to let the morning start off that way. "Now, I know the both of you are already acquainted. Heck, I watched you both for long enough to know that. But I called you both anyway here to save you from the headache of meeting again like this in the actual classroom. To briefly summarize, though you are both already aware: Professor Kukui, you and our battle instructor Guzma will be working together for the next two weeks to teach his class the section on Pokémon moves. I expect the absolute best effort from the both of you boys."

Before Kukui could speak a cocky smirk spread across Guzma's face as he taunted, "ya hear that, Professor? The two of us are gonna be partners in crime for a lil' while, excitin' huh?"

The Professor regained his composure, folded his arms and stated, "yes. I'm not deaf Guzma…" He then turned to Asuka and asked, "can we speak for a few minutes please, Miss? Privately?"

Guzma leaned forward in his seat with a scowl and interrupted before the principal could answer, "if you've got somethin' to say about me then you can say it to my face, Candlenut."

Kukui momentarily grimaced at the old nickname before speaking, "I'm just… Surprised… I expected literally anybody else to be here. Would've been nice to know who I'd be workin' with..."

"My apologies for that. But considering your… Ehem… 'History'… I thought it best that I kept it a surprise until now, from both of you. Otherwise I am very sure at least one of you would've complained, or worst of all, refused," admitted Asuka, "but I urge you not to worry Professor. I can assure you that Guzma is quite worthy of his position here."

He looked back and forth between the principal and Guzma, who was giving a smug grin at her compliment. Kukui could barely believe what he was hearing. He was very unsure if he could trust her words completely, did he bribe her for this or something? No way, he couldn't have. But why else would she let someone like _him_ around primary school students? The man sighed, "I'm still not sure about this… I've got no problem with passing on my passion for moves but… Knowing what he's like…"

Guzma then rose from his chair. "What? What exactly am I like Kukui?!"

"That."

The two of them began to bicker. Asuka pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration; this was going to be a long two weeks. She glared up at the two of them and yelled, "shut it!" Both men flinched and looked at her with wide eyes. The older woman then spoke to them very sternly, "frankly, I do not care one bit that you two have history between you, it is my expectation that for the good of your _students_ that you work well together! Now, Guzma!"

He stiffened, placed his hands in his pockets and hunched over at her tone of voice. "…Yeah?"

"Professor Kukui generously DONATES his time to our school every year. It is a PRIVILEGE that he does this for us, not an expectation! You are to treat him with the upmost respect while he is a guest in your classroom, do you understand?!"

Guzma looked at his feet and nodded. "Yeah. I get it…"

Asuka then turned to Kukui, her harsh expression softened. "Professor, I fully understand your grievances with this situation, but I request that you _please_ work together with our battle instructor despite the history you have between you. I know Guzma doesn't look very promising at first glance, but he has been doing genuinely well in his new role so far. I urge you to give him a chance, if not for him then for his students at least…"

Kukui dropped his hands to his sides, he looked guilty, but still unsure despite Asuka's pleading look. He then straightened up and said, "alright. Let's do this then, yeah?"

The older woman smiled. "Thank you… This can be a lesson on teamwork for the both of you… Besides, I distinctly recall a time long passed where you refused to leave each other's sides… Maybe you could recall something from those days, hmm? Anyway, you both should go and prepare for the day. You're dismissed."

Kukui nodded and left the room. Guzma followed behind him, throwing his empty cup across the room into the bin beside Asuka's desk, he clenched his fist and hissed a 'yes!' when it landed perfectly. He caught up to Kukui after closing the door behind him and strolled by his side, a slight smirk present on his face.

The move specialist glanced up at him momentarily but didn't speak.

"You're bein' weirdly quiet, eh Candlenut? Did me actually gettin' in here leave your ass speechless?"

He adjusted his glasses. Guzma was clearly just trying to get some kind of rise out of him. "Honestly? Yes."

The taller man chuckled and then started to brag, "well it ain't surprisin' that I'd beat all those other losers who tried to get in into the dust! Whoever they were… But yeah, I've been doin' pretty great here, showin' those lil' squirts what for and all that. It's been pretty fun and most'a the kids seem to like me too, I mean, why wouldn't they? We've been on one hell of a roll and honestly I don't really need ya here givin' me move pointers and stuff" –he folded his arms and leaned closer to Kukui -"but hey, maybe you could be a little help."

Kukui stopped in front of the classroom door and leered up at him. "Lemme get somethin' straight right now; I'm not doing this to help you, Guzma. I'm here to impart my passion for moves onto the next generation of Pokémon trainers," his tone then briefly became a little more enthusiastic, "I want them to be interested about them! Excited about them! I want them to be curious and use what I teach them to choose the best moves for them and their Pokémon when the time is right! What I don't want, however, is to be talked down to by the likes of you."

Guzma took a step back and put his arms out in front of him, still smiling. "Alright alright alright. I'll stop bein' a dick Kukui. My kids'll prob'ly get a real kick outta all that move stuff you've got in mind anyway." He unlocked the classroom door, entered the room and leaned on his desk as the Professor followed inside. Guzma reached into his old, scrappy looking bag, pulled out his notebook and offered it to him. "I got the whole week planned out too y'know? What I wanna do each day and on what kind of move, take a look if ya want."

Kukui raised an eyebrow at the sight of the notebook and cautiously took it from him. He had a brief read through before closing the book and returning it to Guzma. It looked to Kukui like this week he was just planning on demonstrating different move types each day, when to use them and what they do. Unsurprisingly he was a 'hands on' type of teacher. All that was entered for the following week, however, was a question mark with 'sort this shit later' written underneath it.

He sighed. "Well, I'm a little more confident that you're actually doing your job now, but I don't think what you've got in mind will cut it. Moves are a lot more nuanced than just 'this is what they do and how to use them'. You have to consider things like power, accuracy and how Pokémon themselves learn moves and manifest them. What you were going to do just isn't enough."

Guzma began to tap his foot; the criticism had ticked him off slightly. He took a deep breath and said, "you're prob'ly right. More shit to talk about anyway eh? So what did you want to do?"

Kukui blinked, he didn't outright yell at him for that? "Well, we think along 'similar' lines when it comes to this, I guess. I wrote something up as well, here, this is what I normally do when I come here." The Professor handed him a much more organized looking folder from inside his jacket, in the folder was a neatly typed out schedule of the next two weeks.

Guzma narrowed his eyes, sure the information that would be presented was a lot better, but nobody would get involved until the second week. The kids wouldn't even be able to do anything with their Pokémon until the last damn day! It was just a big fat info dump sprinkled with demonstrations. He frowned and shook his head. "Kukui, they're eleven. Might as well teach this shit at night 'cuz this'll put them to sleep."

The other man took the folder back and frowned slightly. Of course the first person to object to the way he does things would be Guzma. Of course. Because Guzma is _always_ right. "Got something better in mind then?"

"Yeah, I do. Actually goin' outside and gettin' the suckers involved."

"They are involved though?"

"You know what I mean! Do the demos in the first week and let them all practise the second week!"

"Guzma, they're getting tested on this. They won't remember anything if they don't write stuff down."

"Well they sure as hell won't remember jack when they take a nap mid speech huh?! Let them take notes outside while you show them things!"

Kukui folded his arms. "It's gonna rain this week Guzma, that won't work!"

"Then let them write things inside then take 'em out and show them so they get a better picture! A little rain never hurt no one! It'll do 'em some good!"

"But they'd understand it better if they did work over the weekend and then come to watch me demonstrate with more prior knowledge! Rather than just shovin' it all in their face at once!"

"What?! You're the one plannin' on overloadin' them in the first week! Not everyone is a nutty-ass Professor that obsesses over this crap daily! Nothin's gonna stick because trust me; this shit is BOR-RING!"

Kukui stared definitely at Guzma, who was leaning forward with his hands on his hips. The Professor then closed his eyes and shook his head. "This is a mess… Look, Guzma, why don't you just take it easy for the next two weeks? I'll take over for this section and you'll still be paid just for bein' here. Good deal, right?" He looked up at the other man, his eyes widened when he saw something very unexpected. Guzma looked like he was about to explode.

He clenched his fists, raising them to grab at his hair but instead moving them into his hips. His lips curled into a snarl as he yelled, "no! I ain't just gonna 'Slack Off' for the next two weeks! This is my class and you think you can just waltz right in and take over because of fucking course you can! You're Professor Kukui! Everyone kisses the ground you walk on! And you can just swoop in because of course I couldn't _possibly_ know how to do somethin' better than you! I ain't even good enough for my own damn kids! Aren't I, Kukui?!"

He glared daggers at Guzma, who was now leaning over right into his personal space. Kukui warned, "stop putting words in my mouth and back off. Now." Guzma took a step forward in response. Kukui then backed away before walking over to the other side of the class and turning to face the other man. "Now, before you lose your cool altogether, you're gonna listen to me. I _was_ giving you the benefit of the doubt, but now we're gonna do things my way. You're going to stand aside and let me teach for the next two weeks, and if you speak to me like that one more time I'll make sure your boss knows about it. Are we clear, Guzma?" he sternly told.

Guzma tapped his foot faster now, he had his arms folded and his nails were digging into his skin. "Oh yeah, gonna dob me in huh? _Real_ mature."

"Are. We. Clear. Guzma?"

He sat down onto his desk grumbling under his breath and looking at the ground.

Kukui approached him and looked down at him. "I thought so. Y'know, if there's one move you should look into its Calm Mind; it might do you some good."

The Professor left the classroom, unable to see the middle finger directed towards his back. There wasn't much he could do, but there was no way Guzma was going to take this lying down. If Kukui wanted to teach the class then by all means he can go for it, however, it wasn't going to be easy for him by any means.

…

Minnie could tell this was going to be one heck of a morning the second she walked into the classroom. Everyone else had crowded around their guest, Professor Kukui, asking him question after question before they started the day. In particular Keahi for some reason, she was bouncing up and down like a Spoink. The strangely shirtless man has already left a good impression on the girl; he seemed very cheerful and enthusiastic. He already seemed much more mature than their current teacher and his smile brightened up the room, in all honestly, she really liked him.

But Minnie didn't remain excited for very long, especially after spying Guzma perched on the windowsill, grinding his teeth as he shot daggers at the Professor. That was an extremely familiar and concerning expression, there was clearly something very wrong here. The other students that were more familiar with their teacher could sense something was up as well. Minnie guessed that Jon would probably be getting an earful from Guzma tonight, according to the boy they did talk quite a lot. She'd just get her friend to fill her in on the whole situation over text tonight.

The lesson did start out quite well in her opinion; Kukui seemed very organized and extremely knowledgeable on the subject at hand. He went over everything they were going to do over the next fortnight and his plan seemed very solid! Minnie would've been extremely enthused about this situation, if it weren't for the looming presence of her actual teacher in the front left corner of the room that is. Something was bound to happen, and lo and behold, she was right. For a time during the lesson on physical moves her teacher was quiet, but it then soon started. Guzma had slowly begun to direct snide comments towards the Professor. Nothing too bad, but Kukui couldn't get him to quiet down and it was very clear it actually began to affect his teaching.

Now there she was, twenty minutes later, sitting at her desk with her chin resting on her arms as she listened to one of the dumbest conversations in existence take place.

Kukui facepalmed. "Guzma, that's not good advice! You can't just spam priority moves to win! They're normally very weak!" he corrected, frustrated.

"I didn't say to spam them! I said make good use of 'em! They can give you one heck of an edge!"

"Not with the way you use them though."

"How would you know?! We haven't battled in years!"

"Because if there's one thing you clearly haven't done Guzma, it's change. Besides, I'm the expert here, not you."

"Well if you're such a 'move master' then why don't you move outta the way and let me teach my damn class, Candlenut!"

"You know why… You think you've got so much Swagger don't you? When in fact you're just a Substitute-level teacher."

Guzma's eye twitched as an "ooo snap!" rang out in a familiar grating voice from the back of the class. "Again, you wouldn't know, cuz you won't let me give a 'Helping Hand'! At least I don't use Yawn on my students like you clearly are."

"I'm honestly surprised that nobody has used Imprison on you yet, Guzma."

Minnie groaned and buried her face in her hands. Internally she begged and pleaded to the void for this to end as swiftly as possible. This level of sheer stupidity couldn't last a whole fortnight, could it? She rested her forehead on her desk and allowed the sound of their bickering to become white noise. She prayed that whatever bad blood they had between them would be sorted out post-haste; otherwise these next two weeks were going to be an absolute Nightmare.


	16. Chapter 16: Helping Hand

Two slow, painful days had inched by and it was now early Thursday morning. Professor Kukui had managed to get through most of what he had planned so far with the students; he had even grown to like most of them. They were good natured kids with big hearts and big dreams, but nothing he did could quell the nagging, grating voice in the corner of the classroom. Guzma just would not shut up! He snuck in snide comments whenever he could and generally attacked Kukui's character in front of all the kids. The Professor had had more than enough of this and had taken to arguing back with the other man. Looking back, those conversations were utterly childish. The Professor mentally kicked himself for allowing Guzma to drag him down to his level of immaturity.

Kukui strolled leisurely towards the school, the cool breeze felt refreshing against his bare skin. He was taking it easy this morning, as despite how much he wanted to, he wasn't doing much of the teaching today. Guzma had thrown what Kukui could only describe as a tantrum after class the previous day. He kept going on and _on_ about not getting to do anything, whining that the Professor stealing his thunder. This honestly left Kukui more surprised than annoyed; he assumed that Guzma would quickly settle down and take advantage of pretty much getting two weeks off of work. But no, he _still_ insisted on organizing a lesson on move application! And after consulting Kahuna Hala privately for advice Kukui ultimately ended up caving in to his demands.

Fine then. If Guzma wanted to put on his big boy pants for once then that was all good with Kukui. The Professor had given him a night to organize something for this morning's lesson. Guzma was at least resourceful after all, but he had no idea what he would come up with. Something decent hopefully. After all, if he did really care about his students he would put the effort in for them. Sadly though, that didn't sound much like the Guzma he knew.

He walked through the open gates, not knowing exactly what to expect. But the last thing Kukui could've predicted was the sight in front of him. Five large holographic obstacles made of hard light were positioned along a spray painted track around the courtyard. At the other end of the courtyard standing in front of a tall holographic wall was Guzma, holding a device in his hand and by the looks of it, arguing with his Golisopod. His team was spread out around the courtyard minding their own business, except for one of them. Did he finally get rid of that downright dangerous Pinsir of his? Probably not, hopefully he was at least smart enough to not let it run loose.

That wasn't important right now though. The immediate question that needed answering was how the heck did Guzma get access to this kind of tech? There's no way any of this actually belongs to him… Right? Kukui looked around, only to spot Guzma's Scizor as it appearing to converse with a Gumshoos. A smile crossed Kukui's lips. Of course, he should've guessed.

The Professor looked around briefly before spotting none other than Captain Ilima, who sat on a bench beside his Smeargle watching the ex gang boss go about his business. He was rugged up in a warm brown jumper with a coffee in one hand and a half eaten grilled cheese sandwich in the other. Kukui walked up to the teen with a smile and greeted cheerfully, "hey there Ilima!"

Ilima returned the smile. "Greetings Professor Kukui! How are you going? Aren't you cold right now? It's quite chilly this morning."

"Not at all! Quite warm actually; the fire burning in my soul keeps me going! So what's happenin' over here?" he asked curiously, eying the holograms.

"I'm just supervising Guzma over there while he fiddles with my equipment. I expected you would be here a little later actually! No matter, everything is almost finished being set up," said Ilima before gesturing to the holograms in front of him, "this here course is for his students' Pokémon, this way they can practise strategic move usage without having to battle!"

Kukui grinned. "Woo! Man that actually sounds great! They should get a kick out of this! Say, I had no idea you knew Guzma, did he call on you for help or somethin'?"

Ilima took a sip of his coffee and smirked. "Funny thing, I don't know him and he didn't ask me for anything. I found him here at around 1am last night trying to make an obstacle course out of a pile of scrap," he then chuckled, "the last thing I expected to find when I came out for some late night training was the old boss of Team Skull stomping around claiming to be a teacher…"

A confused expression crossed the Professor's face, he looked back and forth between the trial captain and teacher and asked, "then why did you help him, let alone believe him? I mean, he is a real teacher, but he sure doesn't look it, yeah."

"He had his ID on him," stated the teen, who then swallowed a bite of his breakfast and sighed tiredly, "you see, this school and its teachers hold a special place in my heart and I guess that now _has_ to include him too. Though he wasn't very appreciative of my criticism or offers to help at first, I kept insisting because his heart was clearly in the right place. I just didn't want to see him embarrass himself in front of his class, considering how far out of his way he was going for them…"

Kukui rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and looked away. "I hate to break this to you, but I think he's doing this to spite me more than anything… I did give him a night to organize a lesson on move application for the class, one that wasn't worthless…"

Ilima covered his mouth and laughed, "one night?! You gave him only one night! I knew you could be a little harsh sometimes but you really set him up for failure Professor!"

Kukui stuttered for a moment as the teen laughed, "b-but… I didn't… Hey now, I didn't tell him to go build an entire obstacle course on his own! That's entirely his idea!"

"Well, the both of you should be thankful that I came along when I did. You would've arrived to see pile of dangerous rubbish held together with Ariados silk if I didn't," he commented.

The Professor folded his arms and asked, "speakin' of garbage, you did have him clean that up, right?"

Ilima waved a hand dismissively. "Oh of course of course, we took everything to the recycling centre, except for a few of those old white plastic chairs, however. They're off to the side near the wall over there; we'll take them after the lesson. I just wanted to keep something for Guzma to let out his... Ehrm… Frustration on…"

He narrowed his eyes. "Frustration?"

"Yes… He's been worked up about this since before I arrived here, whenever something fell apart or went wrong he'd destroy it. I didn't want to risk him damaging my equipment, so if he really has to break something he has those. He's been quite good since I brought my gear along though, I guessed I eased his mind somewhat," explained Ilima, smiling contently.

"He didn't hurt you, did he?" asked Kukui sternly.

The teen put his hands up in front of him and exclaimed, "oh no no no! Not at all! Well, he could have if I let some of the things he said actually phase me… He _really_ didn't like me at first actually. I have a feeling that's purely because I'm a trial captain, which was the one thing he kept bringing up. But I think he's slowly warming up to me! He even stopped with the passive-aggressive insults a few hours ago… Honestly he's quite the interesting character if say so myself, though I do wonder what the principal was thinking when she decided on him. He's not a _bad_ choice, far from it from what I can see, but definitely an odd one to put it lightly…"

"Yeah, I agree… So how's everything been-," the man gasped and pulled away when a hand suddenly gripped his shoulder tightly.

"Well would'ja look at what the Gumshoos dragged in! The nutty Professor actually managed to peel himself away from his desk this mornin'!" exclaimed Guzma with a wide grin, "so, when were y'all thinkin' of invitin' me to chat instead of just sittin' here talkin' behind my back the whole time?"

Kukui stared at him, still recoiling from the surprise. To say Guzma looked like a total wreck was a complete understatement. His wide, almost deranged looking eyes were unnerving, in particular coupled with his especially dishevelled hair and dirt stained shirt. He knew this look; Guzma was only hours away from completely crashing and burning; he would likely sleep for about nineteen hours before anyone is able to rouse him. Clearly the previous night's escapades were fuelled by nothing but tapu cocoa and spite. Kukui pulled out of his grip and stated coldly, "we weren't."

"Well that's a little unfair ain't it? Leavin' ya boy out as usual eh Candlenut?"

The shorter man pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned slightly before saying, "let's just drop this before everythin' starts escalating. Anyway, Guzma, you need to fill me in on what exactly we're doing. Ilima here already gave me the basic rundown but I want to know exactly what you have planned."

"Oh yeah, gimme one sec." Guzma turned to Ilima and placed a small touch screen tablet in his hand. "Everythin's all good to go now, and well-" the white haired man placed his hands in his pockets, looked away awkwardly and shrugged- "thanks a whole bunch for helpin' me out, I really couldn't have done this without ya… You really ain't that bad for prissy lil' rich boy…"

Ilima grinned and placed a hand over his heart. "Aww! I'm touched! Thank you for being respectful with my equipment, I can't wait to watch your class make good use of it!"

Guzma looked away further to try and hide his smile as Kukui watched the exchange, stunned at the other man's display of humility.

He then turned back to the Professor after regaining his composure and placed his hands on his hips with a determined smirk. "Alright! So you and me are gonna play a lil' game today Kukui!"

Kukui raised an eyebrow and asked, "a game?"

"Yeah! Imma split the class in half so we got two teams. We have three rounds, each round two kids from each team have gotta work together to get their Pokémon through the course usin' their moves. They can also use their moves to stop the other team from makin' progress, but they can't deal any damage. So moves that poison and burn are out, but paralyzin' and sleepin' are allowed! Every Pokémon on a team has gotta cross the finish line to win, that's so some flyin' Pokémon can't just swoop through and win in an instant," explained Guzma as an excited grin spread across his face, "so whaddaya say? Game on, Kukui?"

The Professor adjusted his glasses with a smirk. "You know what? I like the sound of this! And I think I'll like it even more when my team's moves grind yours into the dirt!"

Guzma clapped loudly and shouted, "hell yeah! It's on!"

"Woo, yeah! So… How are we gonna divide everyone up? Pull their names out of my cap?"

Ilima then chimed in, "you could just split them by gender, which would be the easiest way. You did say that you have a one to one ratio of girls and boys, so how about you take the boy's team Professor and Guzma takes the girls?"

"I'm all good with that, how about it Guzma?"

The teacher smirked, "more than happy. Just you wait, we're gonna beat you down, _hard_."

…

Soon the first two teams stood beside the track, watching their Pokémon as they positioned themselves on the starting line. The kids were absolutely ecstatic when today's lesson was explained to them and were just as eager as their teachers to have their team come out on top. Ilima watched on from the sidelines, curious to see who would emerge victorious. This year's students had a diverse range of Pokémon and their teachers divided them up into partners well; no team appeared completely disadvantaged.

The Captain sipped his coffee as the first contenders stood at the starting line: Cleffa and Makuhita VS Meowth and Espurr.

Keahi shouted words of encouragement to her Pokémon, which pounded its fists together in excitement as the tiny star Pokémon beside it twirled in response to Amelia's cheers. The psychic cat Pokémon teetered on the spot as Curtis flashed it a thumbs up, whereas Meowth stood with its front legs folded over its chest, sharing Kalino's determination to win.

Guzma paced back and forth in front of the starting line. "A'ight, so everyone's ready? Then here we go in three… Two… One…" he quickly ran out of the way and whistled loudly.

Makuhita immediately sprinted ahead towards the first obstacle, its trainer following on the sidelines. In front of it was a tall wall with a red and white target positioned near the top, it began to try and scale the smooth hard light wall, slipping down before climbing very far.

Meowth and Espurr then arrived at the wall together, their trainers following suit, with Cleffa bringing up the rear. Curtis leaned in towards Kalino and muttered something to him; the tired looking boy grinned and nodded in response. Curtis adjusted his cap and commanded, "Espurr! Use Confusion on the target!"

They grey cat looked up at the target and stared, the object began to shake and shattered from the force of the psychic energy, its shards disappearing into thin air. A rectangular hole in the wall opened up in front of them and the cat Pokémon rushed through.

Keahi called out to her Pokémon frustrated, "come on Maku! Just a little higher!"

Amelia then put her hand on her partner's shoulder and said, "wait Keahi, think for a moment. Our Pokémon have no projectile moves, so one of them has to become the projectile!"

The other girl paused for a moment before her eyes widened. "Oooh! Maku! Pick up Cleffa!"

The Pokémon followed her order and Cleffa looked at its trainer with almost teary eyes. "You'll be ok Cleffa! Just do as I say and everything will be alright!"

The pink star looked back at the target as Makuhita threw it fast.

"Cleffa! Use Pound!"

The tiny Pokémon slammed its nub of an arm into a target, shattering it. It fell towards the ground, only to be caught by its partner Pokémon, who placed it on its back. Keahi and Amelia gave each other a high five and followed their Pokémon to the next obstacle. In front of the Pokémon were a number of floating platforms growing higher and higher over a glowing floor. At the end was a set of stairs leading back down to the ground.

Meowth and Espurr seemed to be about halfway up, but the psychic type was clearly struggling. Its stubby limbs were not built for jumping. Kalino was encouraging his own Pokémon to assist its partner, but there were no moves it could use to help it jump further.

Makuhita leaped from platform to platform effortlessly before Keahi told it to stop close to Espurr, who was trying to pull itself up onto a ledge. "Maku! Sand Attack!" The brown sack like Pokémon generated and kicked sand into the struggling cat's eyes. The Pokémon recoiled, sending it crashing to the floor. The second it hit the glowing surface it side of the course turned a bright red and a barrier generated in front of Meowth.

The dark type hissed angrily at Makuhita, who poked out its tongue in response and cleared the obstacle easily, rushing to the next. The boys had to start over as the girls ran ahead.

In front of the fighting type was a tall vertical wall. There was no target this time and it was textured, it looked like they would have to scale it to pass by. Keahi turned to her teammate, "ok so I think I should have Maku Maku use Arm Thrust to throw Cleffa up to the top of that wall because it's reeeaaaally high!"

Amelia brushed her hair out of the way and shook her head. "No no no. Bad idea."

She tilted her head and asked, "why? Maku Maku could climb quicker without that extra weight!"

"But it won't climb fast enough! Keep my Pokémon on the back of yours, trust me!" assured Amelia.

Keahi paused for a moment then nodded in reply; she turned to her Pokémon and told it to begin climbing.

By the time Curtis and Kalino caught up with their Pokémon the opposing team was already halfway up the wall in front of them. The boys instructed their cats to use their sharp claws to scale the wall; hence both Pokémon began to make very quick progress.

Makuhita, however, was much slower as there weren't too many secure looking grips. It soon saw Meowth and Espurr inch up beside it. Amelia eyed the opposing Pokémon closely and soon spotted Meowth look at their team. "Cleffa! Charm!" she yelled.

The tiny pink Pokémon clinging to the fighting type's back looked at Meowth with big sparkling eyes, it squealed happily as the cat Pokémon stared back wide eyed. As Makuhita continued to climb Kalino noticed that his Pokémon had ceased moving. He called out, "Meowth! What are you doing?!" The dark type looked down towards its trainers, its ears had drooped. It appeared to not want to race anymore. "No no! You're not letting them win Meowth! I know Cleffa is super cute and small but it's tricking you! You have to keep climbing! You're a winner, remember?! The best there is! So show everyone that you are! Use Fury Swipes and catch up!"

Meowth's ears quickly perked up at its trainer's encouragement and it looked upwards with determination. Its sharp claws glowed as it used Fury Swipes to scramble up the wall fast.

But as soon as it began to pass the opposing team Keahi called out to her Pokémon, "Maku! Cover your ears!"

The boys looked confused as Makuhita buried its head in its arms. Amelia then yelled, "Sing Cleffa!"

Before they could say anything Cleffa let out a soothing melody. Meowth's eyelids drooped as it fell backwards from the tall wall. Curtis quickly shouted, "grab it!" Espurr then reached down towards its falling partner and Meowth froze limp in mid air, a pink aura surrounding it. "Keep climbing! Get to the top Espurr!" The psychic type squeaked in response and continued up the wall with the grey cat in tow. They made sure to use Leer on the opposing Cleffa for good measure, causing the baby Pokémon to cry in fear, letting them pass.

Though they reached the top first, Meowth was still fast asleep, Espurr shook it, but the cat failed to budge. Curtis narrowed his eyes and looked at Kalino. "Guzma said nothing about dealing damage to your own team, did he?"

A worried look crossed Kalino's face. "Uh… What are you getting at?"

"You'll see… Espurr! Use Scratch on Meowth! Wake it up!"

"H-hey!"

Kalino's protests went unheard as Espurr slashed Meowth across the face, causing it to screech and wake up immediately. It hissed and attempted to Scratch its partner, who stepped back out of the way. "Break it up you two! Jump down the wall!" ordered Curtis.

But before either Pokémon could react the opposing team made it to the top. "Cleffa, use Encore!" Both cats stared as a light unveiled them; the tiny pink Pokémon giggled and clapped its tiny stubby hands together. Makuhita chuckled mockingly before leaping down from the wall.

Both the boy's Pokémon followed suit, landing perfectly. In front of them was a series of hurdles, which Makuhita was clearing with relative ease. Kalino frantically looked between them and the final obstacle after the hurdles, another wall. Difference being, this wall shared the same colour pattern as the target, as well as the hurdles. He turned to Curtis saying, "they can only use Scratch now right? Tell Espurr to Scratch through the hurdles!"

The other boy nodded, commanding both Pokémon. They made short work of the hurdles, not even bothering to jump them as they disappeared after being shattered. The pair quickly overtook Makuhita and smashed through the final barrier, only a short dash to the finish line now. Both Pokémon began to sprint; compared to their opponents they were much slower.

A loud crash prompted the two to look behind them. Makuhita had used Arm Thrust on the wall and was now racing to the finish. Meowth shook, the sight of that move had left it Rattled. It grabbed Espurr's paw and booked it to the finish line, faster than it had ever ran before. It was close, but Meowth and Espurr crossed the finish line first!

The boys jumped for joy as their team cheered and clapped. They rushed up to their Pokémon and scooped them into their arms, congratulating them on their effort.

Professor Kukui came up between and placed his hands on their shoulders, cheering, "woo! Those were some stylish moves out there boys! Both you and your Pokémon were amazin' out there!"

Kalino put an arm around Curtis's shoulder, prompting a grin from the other boy. He gave a thumbs up to the Professor. "It was no trouble! One point to us then!"

Kukui then flashed a smirk in Guzma's direction. The other man looked much less happy. He was glaring directly in the Professor's direction and tapping his foot.

Keahi and Amelia walked up to him, disappointed. Amelia held her Cleffa close and faced her teacher with a frown. "I'm sorry sir… We tried our best…"

Guzma blinked and looked down at them. "What? Don't apologize, y'all did great out there, nothin' you two did is tickin' me off… But I guess that's how it is right now, huh?" he then grinned, "don't worry too much, we ain't beat down yet! No way am I lettin' Candlenut over there win at my game!"

Keahi then blushed and rocked on her heels. "U-um… Do… Do you think he was watching me and Maku Maku, Guzma? The Masked Royal? I know I lost but he would've liked how I did, right?"

Amelia rolled her eyes as Guzma cocked an eyebrow. "Why don'cha just ask 'im yourself?"

"U-Uh… No… I… I think I'm ok not knowing! I think he would've liked it! Maku Maku did great anyway! Ahaha…" she trailed off, chuckling awkwardly.

Guzma stared at her confused before shaking his head. "Whatever… Next team is up! Hayley and Minnie, get over here!"

The next round consisted of Hayley and Minnie's Cascoon, Cutiefly, Igglybuff and Yungoos VS Jon and Kavika's Stufful, Porygon, Rockruff and Growlithe.

Initially, pairing the kids that owned two Pokémon each together seemed like a good idea to save time, but in hindsight it likely wasn't the best course of action. The participating kids had double the Pokémon to worry about and hence, it was a bit of a mess. The combination of Hayley and Minnie's Pokémon ended up dominating the round, considering the sheer amount of status and status effect moves they knew. Jon and Kavika were left extremely frustrated every time their Pokémon were paralysed, slowed, put to sleep or blinded by a Sand Attack.

Hence, their greatest asset ended up being Jon's trusty Porygon, which made use of a combination of the move Conversion 2 to grant immunity to Stun Spore and Tracing various opponents and ally's abilities when required. However, it could not carry its allies on its own, and they ultimately ended up losing by a mile.

Guzma was absolutely thrilled by his team's first victory, popping his shades onto Hayley's head and ruffling Minnie's hair before leaning down to talk to Iolana and Yume. They were now neck and neck with Kukui's team and the final round was the tiebreaker.

Kukui, though slightly disappointed, praised the boys for the effort. He was particularly interested in Jon's Porygon, he had never seen its exclusive moves in action before and would've loved to take the time to study them outside of class. But right now was not the time for that, he stopped himself from continuing his conversation with Jon and headed over to Nathan and Donnie, who were giving pep talks to their Pokémon.

"You boys all ready to go? Just one more round, yeah!"

Nathan stood up straight and nodded, his Mareanie copied his actions beside him. "Yep, I'm ready over here sir!"

Donnie rubbed the back of his neck, looking less than confident as Perry rubbed its paws together, flashing an excited grin. "Yeah… But you have to listen to me, ok Perry?! No matter how much you think you have it in the bag, you _need_ to listen, ok?!"

The Pikachu looked up at its trainer and grinned, exclaiming, "Pika pi!"

The blonde boy returned the grin awkwardly, hoping that was a yes. Nathan then patted his friend's back and gave him an encouraging smile before heading to the starting line with his Mareanie. Donnie stood beside Nathan on the sidelines as he watched Yume's Bounsweet and Iolana's Wingull position themselves at the starting line.

Guzma then walked beside the track, shouting, "alright then! Y'all know the drill! Winner takes all! Three, two, one, GO!"

Perry, Wingull and Mareanie shot towards the first obstacle, leaving Bounsweet completely in the dust.

Nathan yelled, "Mareanie! Use Poison Sting on that target! Open up the gate!"

The starfish Pokémon shot a stinger from the spike on its head, opening the gate just before Perry sprinted through. Donnie rushed after his Pikachu and cried out, "wait!" Perry stopped before the next obstacle and looked at him, "you need to wait for Mareanie! You're a team, remember?!"

The Pikachu folded its arms and waited impatiently as Nathan's Pokémon moved through the gate as fast as it could.

Yume turned to Iolana as they jogged beside her baby Pokémon, adjusting her glasses. "'Lana, we both know that your Wingull can clear this whole thing in a heartbeat, try doing everything you can to either stop them or help Bounsweet ok?"

Iolana grinned. "Don't worry, I got'cha sister! Wingull! Water Gun!"

The seagull spat a jet of water, shattering the target with ease and allowing the small grass type to run through to the next obstacle. The boy's Pokémon were already leaping from platform to platform.

Iolana ran ahead and pointed to them. "Wingull! Use Mist on their side of the obstacle!" The flying type swooped low and released an icy mist from its mouth; neither opponent could see even a foot in front of them.

Yume grinned. "Ok Bounsweet! Let's show them, you and me! Use Splash to jump across the platforms!"

The grass type let out a cute 'sweee!' before beginning to jump up and down. It bounced from platform to platform cheerfully.

"You sure that actually did anything?" asked Iolana, confused.

Yume shrugged. "We have to use moves, so why not? It makes her jump really high anyway."

Her partner returned the shrug.

Meanwhile Perry had leaped out of the mist and raced ahead to the wall. Donnie shot an apologetic look to Nathan, who was encouraging his Mareanie to locate the platforms by hitting them with Poison Sting. He caught up with Perry at the base of the wall. "Perry wait!" he demanded, "don't go any further!"

The Pikachu huffed at its trainer, but then its ears pricked up. Wingull was shooting towards it fast. "Supersonic!" cried Iolana.

The bird Pokémon let out a distorted cry as Donnie shouted, "dodge with Quick Attack!" The Pikachu leapt above the incoming attack and shot up the holographic wall using Quick Attack, it then launched off the surface towards the Wingull. "Sweet Kiss, Perry!"

Before it could dodge Perry had planted a kiss on the gull's head, confusing it as Bounsweet ran up to the base of the wall.

Nathan looked over at them and yelled, "hey!" as Perry took off up the wall a second time, ignoring Donnie's commands to wait. He turned back towards his Mareanie, which was still stuck in the now fading mist. "You're almost there! Just keep going! Don't fall off whatever you do!" he encouraged.

Iolana watched in frustration as her Wingull squawked in confusion, she turned to Yume and said, "sorry, I can't get Bounsweet up the wall, if I try to get her to use a move she'll probably just hurt herself!"

Yume frowned for a moment before looking at her Pokémon, who smiled up at her expectantly. "It's alright… I have an idea… Bounsweet, keep using Splash until you get high enough to clear the wall, then use Rapid Spin mid air, ok?"

The berry-like Pokémon nodded and began to Splash over and over, jumping higher and higher. Yume bit her lip; her Pokémon's bouncing was hard to focus on. "Iolana? Tell her when to spin for me please?" she asked, clearly frustrated.

"Why…?"

"I can't focus on her. Just do it, please."

"Alright alright, chill out…"

The grass type reached the height of its jump just as Mareanie cleared the mist and started scaling the wall using its spikes. "Rapid Spin, now!" cried Iolana.

Bounsweet span around fast in mid air, its leaves allowing it to glide over the wall and completely over the hurdles as Wingull followed.

Donnie was already at the final obstacle with Perry, shouting, "wait! Listen to me! Look, the other team is here! Use Sweet Kiss on Bounsweet! Stop them!" But Perry had other ideas; it smashed through the wall with a Quick Attack and bolted to the finish line, jumping up and down when it made it. "No!" shrieked Donnie, "you haven't won at all! Both you and Mareanie need to be here! Stop jumping around like that!"

But it was too late; Bounsweet broke through the last wall with a Razor Leaf and hauled its stubby little legs to the finish line as fast as it could. Wingull landed beside it proudly. The girls and Guzma erupted in cheers; Iolana wrapped her arms around Yume tightly. The other girl flinched at the sudden movement, but then returned the hug.

Donnie stared down his smiling Pikachu. "Are you serious? Perry we didn't win. This was about teamwork. Not everything revolves around you, ok?! Both you _and_ Mareanie needed to be here and you didn't help her at all!"

Nathan then walked beside his Mareanie, which poked its head through the hole in the barrier Perry made. The boy glared daggers at the offending Pikachu before gesturing to his poison type and storming back to his team.

Donnie was crestfallen at the look his friend gave his Pokémon. "Sometimes Perry… You're just… You need to pull your head together, or we're never gonna get anywhere…" His pokemon looked up at him and then directed its gaze to the ground, ears down.

Meanwhile, Iolana and Yume had picked up their Pokémon and headed back to their team, only for their teacher to wrap his arms around their shoulders. "Holy crap! Ya beat them! The two of y'all pulled that off like a dream! Hell that was nothin'! We absolutely whooped them!" cheered Guzma, laughing.

The two girls giggled as he ruffled their hair. Guzma then stood up straight to see Kukui walk over to him, a smile on his face.

"Well, congratulations are in order! Gotta admit, I'm impressed. That was a damn good lesson Guzma, even if you did have to get Ilima's help in the end," the Professor admitted.

Guzma smirked smugly and folded his arms. "Well what did'ja expect? I ain't some loser Candlenut, I know what I'm doin'! There was gonna be a course here even without the kid's help! So how's it feel bein' the one to get beat down for once? Maybe now you'll stop shovin' me to the side every damn chance you get!"

Kukui adjusted his jacket, his smile didn't fade. "I'll mull over it tonight… And it didn't feel that bad, this was just a game after all."

"But I still won, cuz I got some of the best dang kids backin' me, don't I girls?!" Guzma laughed as a choir of squeals sounded out around him.

The Professor couldn't help but chuckle as he headed back over to his own group, 'big bad boss' for sure… He looked to his side to spot Ilima, turning off each disc-like device that generated the obstacles; the boy had a smile on his face.

Kukui looked back as one of the boys rushed past him towards Guzma; that was Jon, wasn't it? He then stopped in his tracks when he saw the smallest girl in the class hug her teacher around the waist; Guzma began to laugh. Another girl, Minnie, then gave him an affectionate punch to the arm. A third, Keahi, began trying to climb up his back like a Komala, causing him to shout and fall onto his behind. The other girls, plus Jon, then piled onto him as he protested. The shouts quickly giving way to laughter.

Kukui slowly took his glasses off; there was a certain feeling of nostalgia welling up in his chest. It was the first time in almost a decade that he had seen Guzma look genuinely happy.


	17. Chapter 17: Work Up

The next morning Amelia sat at her desk quietly, finalizing the notes she had just taken down. Friday morning was always quite slow, especially today considering they now had over half an hour of free time. Normally they didn't even finish what they were supposed to cover, but oddly enough, Guzma hadn't shown up yet this morning. This allowed the Professor to swiftly finish the lesson and then answer any questions the class had on moves and boy there were a lot. The class had become distracted countless times by Guzma's interruptions and Amelia was downright sick of it by now.

So far she was glad that Guzma hadn't shown up, _finally_ she could learn from Kukui without the class being interrupted every five minutes. Generally she was fine with how Guzma taught, despite being critical of how he went about literally everything else, but this week he had been nothing but a huge pain. He was clearly upset about being pushed to the side, she understood that, but couldn't the two of them work it out between them outside of class? Amelia initially hoped that the Professor would be the bigger man and either ignore Guzma or include him, but he just ended up fighting back and egging him on more! When he was focused Professor Kukui was an amazing and extremely knowledgeable person; couldn't somebody like him see how childish that was? Sometimes Amelia wondered if boys really ever truly grew up.

At least Guzma's unusual absence provided some respite and valuable time to put the finishing touches on her notebook; considering the amount of extra work she found herself having to put in recently, her collection of multi-coloured gel pens had become very well-loved. But despite how difficult this week had been Amelia had to admit that yesterday was awesome. A prime example of how her teacher could shine when he put the effort in. Though she felt as though she let her team down slightly by losing her round, it was so much fun! It was the first time she truly had to think creatively about move application, considering she had never battled before. Cleffa had a blast too! She knew her beloved partner was weak considering it was a baby, but it kicked butt yesterday, giving Amelia a new appreciation for status moves.

The girl tapped her pen against her cheek as she studied her now complete notes. A flower on the corner of the page would indeed look pretty, but she had already done that plenty of times, how about something different, like some coral? Amelia smiled and put pen to paper, but just before she started doodling there was a noise. She turned to look out the door to her right; she could hear somebody absolutely sprinting for it down the hall.

Amelia flinched when her teacher suddenly skidded past the doorway, almost tripping as his sneakers slid on the smooth tiles. Guzma rushed through the door and leant against the wall to catch his breath; the entire class froze and watched in silence. The girl blinked and then gaped, he had looked like a mess the previous day, but _man_ this was a new record. His trademark jacket and glasses were missing, he wore only his pants and a baggy white shirt and his hair was flattened on one side. He looked like he had just barely crawled out of bed.

Kukui folded his arms where he stood and looked him up and down before saying, "good morning," in a slightly condescending tone.

"What… Did I… Miss?" huffed Guzma, running his fingers through his hair in an attempt to neaten it.

"The whole lesson," stated Kukui.

Guzma froze, letting his rugged bag slide out of his fingers onto the floor. He cocked an eyebrow in confusion and asked, "the heck…? But there's like" –he quickly checked his watch- "thirty minutes left?"

"Thirty minutes of free time." Kukui then approached him and gestured for him to follow. He led Guzma out of the class and quietly explained, "I managed to get through everything and finish early, so I'm just giving the class time to go over what they learnt."

Guzma put a hand to his forehead and grumbled, "ah shit… You sure there's nothin' left to do?"

"Yeah… Glad to see you here though, guess it's the thought that counts, yeah. How are you feeling?" asked Kukui.

Guzma narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the Professor. "Why the hell do you care? I thought you'd chew my ass out for this."

"I'm not about to criticize you for havin' insomnia. You used to do this when we were teenagers too, remember? But anyway we managed to get through everythin' and then some; it was quiet today after all…"

"The heck's that 'sposed to mean?"

"Nothin'… If you want somethin' to do though, maybe see if you can answer any questions your students have? A bunch of them did want to know where you were after all," he suggested.

Guzma looked away, slightly irritated. "Fine…" He walked back into the class hunched over with his hands in his pockets. "Alright ya little suckers, I'm here. Sorry for bein' late but things happen, if ya got any questions 'bout anythin' or any ideas on stuff to do then fire away. I'm all ears!"

He then spotted Kalino with his hand up and his Meowth sitting casually on his shoulders, he nodded at the boy. "So... I have an idea, but I don't know if it's a very good one…" he said with a shrug.

"That don't matter, I doubt any of y'all wanna sit here bored the rest of the time."

He ran a hand through his long, messy hair nervously. "…Did you bring your Pokémon with you?"

"They come everywhere with me."

"Well… Since we're learning about moves and all that, why don't you show us some really strong ones?" he suggested before grinning, "I've only seen beginner moves in action and I wanna know what I'm up against when I become the champion!"

Guzma smirked, "I'd jump at that suggestion if my Pokémon's moves wouldn't destroy every dummy we have here, I don't wanna be payin' for that, so no."

"But you don't have to use the dummies! You have the Professor!"

Guzma blinked as Kukui looked at Kalino. "You want me to fight Kukui?"

Before he could respond Iolana jumped to her feet exclaiming, "oh my god, do it! Come on boss! Show us what a _real_ Pokémon battle looks like!"

Kukui chuckled and held his hands out in front of him. "Woah! Hold up a minute. I'm always down for a battle but I don't think this is the time or place for it kids! A battle of that level can get pretty dangerous for bystanders as well, our moves would just be far too stylin' for any of you to handle!"

However, his amused smile quickly faded when he looked over to see Guzma casually tossing an ultra ball into the air with a downright malicious smirk on his face.

Iolana laughed and pointed to the two of them, "yeah see! The boss is down! Come on Professor, it'll be awesome!"

Before Kukui could protest Guzma grinned widely. "Come on Candlenut! We can shove 'em in one of the downstairs classrooms so they don't get hurt! Let's give 'em one hell of a show, this is a battle school remember?!"

The Professor frowned. "I don't know about this."

Guzma folded his arms and stood proudly as cheers of encouragement rang out from his class. "Whaddaya say Kukui? Think you can handle big bad Guzma? All of 'em want it! Sounds to me like you're scared that you're gonna get beat down by the hardest guy around!"

Kukui stared the other man down. Judging by the look on his face Guzma wanted to battle for all the wrong reasons. The Professor then slowly smirked, after his atrocious behaviour the whole week knocking him down a peg would extremely satisfying, and putting the kids in a downstairs class would be safe…

A determined look came to his eyes as he grinned. "…One battle to end all battles then. And as a matter of fact Guzma, I'm anything but scared; if your track record is anything to go by this won't be much of a fight!" Guzma snarled at that comment as Kukui turned to the class and called out, "come on then! Downstairs!"

The majority of the students moved to follow the two men out the door, Amelia cringed before hesitantly standing. There was no way she could see this turning out any way but horribly. She then turned around when she heard Iolana begin to speak; the other girl was pulling something out of her bag.

"Ok ok, so I saw this battle coming a MILE away, so I came prepared!" Amelia tilted her head as Iolana unrolled a poster and laid it across her desk. It was an official signed poster of the Masked Royal. "Whoever bets the most money on the winner gets this!"

Amelia stared absolutely dumbfounded, she was very certain that this was against the rules somehow. Surely no-one was stupid enough to actually start placing bets– and Keahi practically slammed at least 20P on her desk, Jon then followed with 50P. Amelia could feel a headache starting to come on; there was no way she was sticking around to watch them throw their money away.

She exited the room and soon found herself in one of the downstairs classes. Amelia decided to sit up on the open windowsill beside Yume, her best friend, who was feeding her Bounsweet poke beans. Yume adjusted her glasses as she watched Guzma and Kukui take up their positions on the court. "Any guesses on who's going to win?" she asked.

Amelia grimaced and admitted, "honestly, I bet Professor Kukui will stomp him… I mean, Mr Guzma only uses bug types; if the Professor's team is even a _little_ bit varied he's bound to have at least one Pokémon that'll wipe the floor with them."

Yume looked past her and grinned before commenting, "looks like Keahi's going to get her money's worth if you're right!"

Amelia snickered, "don't you remember? I'm _always_ right!"

The excited chattering of the class was soon silenced when Kukui yelled out, "woo! Alright then; one singles match, standard rules, winner gets bragging rights, yeah?!"

Guzma put his hands on his hips and flashed a sinister grin. "I hear ya! You ready to face destruction in its human form, Kukui?! It's ya-"

"-boy Guzma! Yeah yeah I know the line! Hurry up and come at me with everything you've got!" interjected Kukui before releasing his first Pokémon onto the field, Midday Lycanroc. The wolf Pokémon howled proudly as Guzma hurled his first Pokémon onto the field, Golisopod. Kukui expected nothing else. "Here we go… Start out with a Stealth Rock, yeah!"

Lycanroc growled at the opposing bug type and roared as sharp floating rocks coated Guzma's side of the field.

Stealth Rock. Of course. Nothing new there. Guzma then crouched low to the ground and gestured to his Pokémon. "Swords Dance Golisopod!" The bug type then sharpened its claws, letting out a deep guttural roar at its opponent.

"Stone Edge!"

"Outta the way!" Golisopod leaped to the side in time with its trainer's voice as sharp pillars rushed up from the ground under it, barely grazing its shell. Guzma grinned and shouted, "yes! Use Waterfall Golisopod!"

The bug type roared as it summoned a massive torrent of water from behind it, cascading down onto the Lycanroc as it attempted to dodge.

Kukui recalled the rock type as it disappeared under the wave, fainted. No matter, he did what he had to do and was amazing while he was out there. He just had a type disadvantage and it was time to fix that. The Professor then threw a Pokeball onto the court with a determined look in his eye, releasing a beautiful white Alolan Vulpix.

Guzma grimaced, great, this wasn't good. He yelled before Kukui could say a word, "Golisopod, Sucker Punch!"

The gigantic bug moved swiftly, delivering a sharp blow to the fox's side. Vulpix regained its footing easily; the punch barely had any effect. Kukui grinned and commanded, "you got this now Vulpix! Hit 'em with Blizzard, yeah!"

Golisopod's eyes widened as the fox stared it down. It lifted its cloud like tails and growled before unleashing a storm of icy wind over the battlefield, obscuring the vision of the trainers and kids. Keahi slowly slipped another 5P to Iolana as she watched, completely in awe of the move's ferocity.

Guzma was now standing and grinding his teeth, Golisopod hadn't used Emergency Exit. The snow quickly dispersed and sure enough his beloved bug was on its back trembling, frozen to its core, a fair distance from where the move hit. He returned the fainted Pokémon to its ball and released Ariados in its place. The spider Pokémon flinched away as sharp rocks dug into its body.

Kukui frowned. "Safeguard, Vulpix!" The arctic fox stood proudly as a hazy mist covered its side of the court.

"Ignore that crap, use Cross Poison!" The spider rushed through the mist and chased the fox, it then leaped and slashed the opposing Pokémon with its front legs.

The Vulpix yelped in pain, tripping over its own paws. It attempted to stand, but then succumbed to the cuts on it back. Oh that's it, he's done for. Kukui quickly returned the whimpering Pokémon, releasing a Braviary in its place. Ariados attempted to damage it with a Sucker Punch, but the eagle soared far out of its reach. The flying type then screeched as its trainer called out, "get rid of it with Brave Bird!"

"Move! Outta the way Ariados!" But it was too late, the Braviary shot into the spider with lightning speed, sending it flying past its trainer and skidding into the dust. Guzma growled in frustration and returned his Pokémon. Fine then nutjob, two can play at that game. He then released Masquerain, which proceeded to let out a static sound with its wings as stones dug into it.

Both trainers shouted in sync and the flying types raced towards each other fast. Their movements became a blur as they exchanged move after move, unable to out-speed the other. The aerial exchange came to an end when Masquerain landed a direct hit on Braviary with Ice Beam. The bird screeched its wings froze in mid air, sending it crashing into the ground. Kukui returned it to its ball when it failed to rise, Magnezone was then sent out in its place.

"Alright now we're gettin' somewhere! Masquerain, Bug Buzz!" yelled Guzma with a malicious grin. The moth vibrated its wings fast, emitting a distorted static noise towards the Magnezone. Its metal shell vibrated with the soundwaves as it flinched, lowering its defence.

"Paralyse it with Thunder Wave!"

The steel type's magnets spun rapidly, unleashing a current through the air. Masquerain attempted to push through the paralysis but quickly succumbed and dropped to the ground. Guzma was standing now. "Come on Masquerain! Get up! Use Energy Ball on it!" The bug type fluttered its wings just a little, but ultimately failed to move.

Kukui then grinned and gave a thumbs down towards Guzma. "Thunderbolt!" Masquerain whimpered for a moment before a bolt of lightning surged through it, leaving it singed and smoking.

Guzma's eye twitched as he returned his Pokémon, he then took a deep breath and released Pinsir, which snapped its pincers together with anticipation despite the sharp rocks digging into it. He sternly commanded, "Pinsir. Storm Throw."

The horned beetle rushed towards the steel type and clamped onto it with its spiked pincers before spinning and throwing it through the air, causing it to crash into the wall of the school.

After a few seconds the Magnezone slowly rose back into the air, barely hanging on. Guzma clenched his fists and yelled, "come the hell on! It should've fainted!"

Kukui just smirked and shouted, "things don't always work out that way, Guzma! Thunderbolt!"

The steel type sent a sharp bolt of lightning through Pinsir, causing it to convulse violently before collapsing.

Guzma's knuckles turned white as he withdrew his Pokémon, releasing his final team member, Scizor. "Scizor! Bullet Punch! Pound it into dust!" he yelled ferociously. The bug type's claws glowed white as it sped towards Magnezone. It landed punch after punch directly between its eyes, causing Kukui to promptly withdraw it.

Kukui felt exhilarated, he hadn't battled this intensely since facing the champion! The only difference was that he knew he wasn't going to lose this fight, with an excited grin he sent out his final Pokémon, Snorlax. Judging by the look of rage on Guzma's face he knew it too.

"Iron Head, Scizor!" The Pokémon's head glowed white as it slammed directly into the opposing Pokémon's stomach. It barely flinched.

"Finish this with High Horsepower, Snorlax!"

"DON'T YOU DARE!"

Despite the Pokémon's sheer size it rushed towards Scizor with incredible speed, smashing into it with all its weight behind it. Guzma was forced to run to the side as the bug type shot through the air towards him, it left a deep trail in the dirt as it skidded across the court. Scizor did not rise after that.

Kukui laughed triumphantly, patting his Snorlax on the arm. The class clapped and cheered outside the windows, particularly those rooting for him. "Woo! Man that was a great battle! Gotta admit I underestimated you there Guzma! Your Pokémon have some awesome moves! So whaddaya say we-" The Professor's joyful smile quickly faded when he looked at his opponent.

Guzma was gripping his hair tightly and shaking his head. He looked like he was going to explode.

"Hey… Guzma it's not that-"

Kukui's attempt to console the other man fell on deaf ears as he screamed, "GUZMA! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

The Professor frowned and walked over to him, this wasn't going any further in front of those kids. Before he could speak, however, Guzma shoved past him and began to storm towards the gate, out of the school grounds. He sighed, hopefully this would pass and he comes back soon.

Kukui turned back towards the kids, only to see one of them climb out of the window and run after their teacher, a little red haired girl. He quickly called out, "hey! Where are you going?!" but was completely ignored. He rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses, but didn't give chase. Despite Guzma's, ehrm, 'issues' he doubted he would hurt one of his own students.

Amelia watched the Professor walk back over towards them; there was a sick feeling in her stomach. If winning would've prevented an outburst like that, then she wished she could've for once been wrong.

Kukui exhaled and took his cap off, running his fingers through his now messy hair. "I'm… Sorry about that outburst kids… Just his behaviour in general too; you didn't need to see that… He's always been like that since we were your age. I honestly hope he doesn't put on displays like that around you guys…" he frowned and so did Amelia; his tone of voice conveyed that he assumed Guzma does, "just gotta let him cool off and then _hopefully_ he'll be able to do his job for once… Anyway, if you have any questions about the topics we covered this week feel free to ask me, I'll gladly be there for you. After all, we did get a bit, um, distracted…"

Amelia gripped the window ledge she was sitting on tightly. That's it. Before anyone else could speak she snapped, "he wasn't doing a bad job."

The Professor blinked for a moment. He asked, "what do you mean…?"

She began to shake and looked down at the ground. "he was doing just fine, until you came along."

The bell rung before Kukui could respond. Amelia slid off of the windowsill, stormed along the side of the building and around the corner. Yume frowned, but didn't follow; she looked like she needed to be alone.

The Professor looked back and forth between Amelia and the rest of the class before turning to them and saying, "you're all dismissed, go get somethin' to eat kids." After watching them leave he followed Amelia, only to find her leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, shaking. His expression softened before he asked, "hey, are you ok? Did I say somethin' to upset you?"

She shot daggers at him. "Yes! Are you seriously that blind?! How DARE you talk about him like that in front of us when YOU'RE half the problem!"

Kukui stared at the girl, absolutely speechless. He shook his head. "Look, I don't think you understand. Like I said, he's always been like this. I was criticising his behaviour."

Amelia yelled, "criticise?! _I_ criticise him! The amount of times he's told me to shut up in class is ridiculous! But he never, and I repeat, NEVER has been like this before around us! What you said wasn't criticism, Professor! You were talking about him behind his back!"

He frowned. "Look, I don't think you understand. Guzma needs to learn a bit of respect for the people around him if he's gonna get anywhere in life and so far he ain't exactly doin' a good job."

"Well maybe he'd show you some respect if you actually gave him any! Trust me I KNOW he's being difficult and complains all the time, but have you stopped even once to think that his complaining might be justified?! You're not our teacher, he is, and you've just shoved him to the side the whole time! And I can tell you right now that he's not just doing it to get under your skin; he clearly _likes_ his job and actually wants to do it! Instead of listening to him and working something out you've been BLIND to all that because you don't like him!" –she stood up tall and stared him directly in the eye- "and I do understand, very well. I can tell you that before this week that despite how weird Guzma is I have NEVER walked out of that class feeling like I wasted my time. I didn't feel like that yesterday either, but even _then_ you were competing against each other. So please, can you both stop acting like stubborn two year olds and make it work next week, not for him but for us? _Please_ , Professor?"

Kukui looked down at her with wide eyes, his expression then slowly morphed to one of guilt as he put his cap back on. "I… I didn't realize… I'm sorry… I'll have a talk with him…"

She nodded. "Good. A real talk, right? Not another fight?" she asked sternly.

"Yeah, a real talk."

Amelia sighed with relief and smiled, holding her hand out to him. "Thank you."

The Professor nodded, gently taking her hand and shaking it.

…

Minnie followed her teacher out of the school as fast as she could. He was walking hunched right over with his hands in his pockets, the lack of a jacket really outlining his poor posture. She matched his pace beside him and looked up at him. Guzma glanced down at her before speaking; he had never looked more sour. "The hell do you think you're doin'?"

"Walking with you," she stated matter-of-factly.

"Why?"

"I want to talk to you."

"Ain't in the mood for talkin', if you wanna talk fuck back off to the school and go chat with Mr Perfect," he growled.

"I don't want to… And where the heck do you think you're going?!"

"Pokémon centre! Where do ya think?! You just watched me get my ass kicked!"

"So you're going to the one in Hau'oli rather than the one _right next to the school_?!"

"I need to take a walk ok?!"

"No! What you need to do is sort out all your _crap_ with Professor Kukui!"

Guzma rolled his eyes and grumbled incoherently.

"Don't you roll your eyes at me, mister! Whatever the heck is going on between you two has been getting in the way of everything all week and _I am sick of it!"_

"Well get used to it! Shit ain't ever gonna change cuz it's not like he'll ever see me as anythin' more than a stupid-ass failure…"

"But if you prove him wrong he might! Guzma it's not his job to see you that way, you need to show him how far you've come! Trust me; being nasty and disruptive to him for an entire week isn't going to make him see you in a different light! All you've done is prove to him that he's right!" stressed Minnie.

Guzma just hunched over further in response.

Minnie rummaged around in her pockets before pulling out a photo. "Guzma… Whatever happened to this? You looked so happy…" She gave the image to him, it was an old photo of him and Kukui as children; they were on an excursion in the forest and had their arms around each other's shoulders.

His expression darkened as he looked down at the photo and he coldly asked, "where did you get this?"

"This morning Jon went through the storage cupboard looking for photos of you when you were in school; that is just one of the ones he found. I have more on me too; the bell rang before I could put them away though," she explained. Guzma let the photo flutter to the ground; Minnie stopped and picked it back up, "hey! Don't drop it!"

"Why? It's just a stupid piece of paper…"

"Because it's still a part of your life… Seriously, whatever happened to that? Why do you hate him so much? You looked like best friends…"

Guzma sighed deeply and scratched his undercut. He then admitted, "I don't hate the guy… I mean, I thought I did, but it wasn't hate… It was somethin' else goin' around masqueradin' as hate which then slowly turned into that."

"And what was that?"

He quietly mumbled, "…Envy…"

Minnie looked up at him sadly and asked, "do you want to go into that…?"

"No."

She looked down at the photo in her hands as she walked beside him. "It's a shame though… You both looked so happy… You used to be really cute too…"

"I was never cute."

"I disagree; you had a really cute face!"

"That's the worst part 'a me," he spat.

The young girl frowned. "Why…?"

"I look like my fuckin' dad."

Minnie's breath caught in her throat, she instantly felt sick. They walked in silence for a few moments before she spoke up, "are you sure…? What about your mom? Don't you look like her at all…?"

Guzma thought for a moment. "Well… I'm a little darker 'cuz 'a her; I don't look it but I'm mixed native… I… I got my hair from her, like, the colour and how it's all wavy and shit… And my eyes, they're mom's… You got no idea how thankful I am for that, kid…" he said before frowning sadly, "guess it takes a real special kind of asshole to make eyes as gentle as hers look terrifying…"

The two of them had stopped walking now, Minnie paused to think about how she should word her response. She then slowly spoke, "well… Guzma, to me they're not 'her eyes', they're yours… And as far as I've known you they've looked wacky, proud, determined and kind… Even on that night when you scared me a little; you just didn't want me getting hurt anymore, and after I got you to stop all that your eyes became gentle again…"

"Heh… That really doesn't sound like me…"

"But that's the you I've gotten to know! You looked out for me, drove those bullies away, checked on me the next day and gave me Yungoos! You're a whole lot better than you give yourself credit for…"

He looked down at his feet when he heard that. "I still ain't shit compared to Kukui though."

"You don't have to be! Guzma that's what you've been missing this whole time, you don't _have_ to be better than him!"

He slowly looked back up at her, but didn't speak.

"I don't want you to be better than him… If you're really being the best you can be then that's more than enough for me…" She smiled up at him sweetly, "so when we go back to the school please show the Professor your best, if that really does matter to him then it'll be good enough…"

Guzma quickly wiped his eyes and turned around, heading back in the direction of the school. "…A'ight… Thanks…"

Minnie followed him and asked, "are… Are you crying…?"

"No, I'm just allergic to stupid bullshit."

She chuckled and slowly placed her hand in his. "Let's go get your Pokémon healed up, then go talk to the Professor once we get back, ok?"

He then nodded and gently grasped her hand in return.

…

Late in the afternoon Guzma sat on his desk, waiting; he and the Professor had agreed to meet after the day was over. Soon enough Kukui entered the room; the two men stared at each other for a few moments before he spoke up, "I… Have a few things to say..."

Guzma folded his arms across his chest and cocked an eyebrow. "Go ahead."

Kukui took off his cap and shades before looking back at Guzma. "I apologize for how I've acted towards you this week… The way I treated you has been dismissive at best and downright rude at worst… We were supposed to work together and I gave up on that before even givin' you a chance. That's a mistake I have to wear and I want to make up for it. And after next week we don't ever have to see each other again if you don't want to…"

Guzma looked away and exhaled, "thanks… For apologizin'... I'm sorry for bein' a dick… I could've just sucked it up and tried to help you out but I went ahead and made it harder for ya. Made it hard for the kids too… That wasn't right, nothin' I did was right…"

The Professor took a few steps closer to him and said, "hey, if there's anythin' you showed me yesterday it's that you can be great when you try to be. Let's make next week one hell of a good one. I even brought this…" Guzma watched as Kukui pulled a blank timetable and notebook out of his jacket. "Let's do this together, properly, and make up for the mistakes we made, yeah?"

Guzma's eyes widened, a smile slowly crossed his face. "Yeah, sounds good Candlenut… Let's do this right this time."


	18. Chapter 18: Water Sport

Guzma moved his shades down over his eyes as the clouds shifted, revealing the warm midday sun. He waited, leaning against the brick wall of the public change rooms as he observed Kukui in the distance just off the coastline, clearing rocks with a ride Sharpedo.

Things were going far smoother now that Guzma and Kukui had agreed to work together; though they had differing ideas of how to teach, instead of arguing they decided to combine those methods in order to bring out the best in both of them. This week it was time for the kids to put everything they learnt into practise and learn about different forms of move applications. Today they had an excursion to demonstrate how water influences the effectiveness of moves; hence the both of them organized a fun activity just off the coast near Kukui's laboratory. This would be a good introduction to different terrain too; Kukui was reluctant to result to weather changing orbs or using potentially hazardous terrain moves to manipulate the environment at this stage.

Guzma folded his arms and tapped his foot impatiently; it shouldn't take this long to put swimmers on, the kids were probably chatting up a storm and taking forever because of it. He looked down at the flier in his hand to pass some time; Minnie gave it to him earlier, it advertised a battling competition being held within the next few weeks. Multi battles huh? Guzma never participated in those as a child, should be interesting.

He glanced to his right when one of his students leant on the wall beside him, it was Iolana, she was looking him over curiously. Guzma raised an eyebrow and shifted away from her, now he felt slightly uncomfortable wearing only his purple swim trunks. He then asked without looking at her, "why haven't you gotten changed yet? Go, hurry up, you're startin' to run outta time."

Iolana shrugged, brushing off the question before scrutinizing her teacher further. She then commented, "I'm surprised you don't have more tattoos..." She then tilted her head curiously and asked, "so what happened to the purple ones on your arms? Did you get them removed or something? You don't look like you could afford that."

Guzma looked away, scratching his undercut awkwardly. "I can't afford that, kid. The tattoos were fake, we painted them on."

The girl covered her mouth with her hands and laughed hysterically. Guzma leered down at her as she pulled herself together enough to remark loudly, "oh my god! Are you like, eight years old?!"

His glare intensified as he growled, "you think I'm stupid enough to get actual gang tattoos? Especially for somethin' small time like Team Skull?" He then sighed, "get outta here… Go get changed already."

Now it was Iolana's turn to appear uncomfortable, she cringed before saying, "I think I'm just gonna to wait until everyone else is finished."

Guzma peered down at her. "What? Are you self-conscious or somethin'? That ain't like you."

She shifted, directed her gaze to her feet and ran her hands down her yellow scarf. "Um, not in the way most people are… I just… The other girls might judge me, and I don't want that…"

"Why do you think they'll judge you?"

Her breath began to hitch. "It's… It's just… Because… Well…"

Guzma then cut in and quietly asked, "it's cuz you're trans, right?"

Iolana froze and then looked up at him absolutely flabbergasted. "H-how did you-"

He quickly interjected, "ya had two names on the roll the first time I saw it, I can piece things together don't you worry 'bout that. I don't give a shit about it though, I really don't." Guzma then lowered his voice and looked down at her. "Now I see the way you're lookin' at me so I just wanna quickly say you don't gotta worry 'bout a thing. I get it. I had a couple grunts like you. So hurry the hell up and go get changed already, if the other girls ask anythin' just explain and if they're really your friends they'll get it, and if they don't they answer to me. So go already! You're gonna make us run late!"

Iolana continued playing with her scarf, but seemed slightly more reassured. She took a deep breath and said, "ok," before walking towards the change room. She then paused and turned to face her teacher, asking, "hey, Boss?"

"Yeah?"

The young girl smirked mischievously. "Your undercut is growing out, it looks really bad actually. You should go get it cut!"

Guzma rolled his eyes. "Tch… Well your damn roots need re-dyeing! And here you are saying my hair looks like crap…"

Iolana simply grinned at him in response and ran into the change room with her bag in tow.

Guzma then returned his gaze out to the ocean, it looked like Kukui had finished clearing the rocks and was now setting up. Good, he was starting to become impatient. Very soon the students began to leave the change rooms and head down to the beachfront. Guzma, however, stayed behind to wait for a certain blonde haired kid to emerge.

The man placed his hand on Donnie's head before he could follow his classmates down to the beach. "Hey wait up! I gotta talk to ya for a second."

Donnie adjusted his glasses as Guzma removed his hand. "Uh… Yes, Sir?"

His teacher frowned sadly. "You know you won't be participatin' in this little game, right?"

The boy groaned in frustration and hung his head back. "Yeah… I guessed as much."

"We're makin' some progress but we still got a lotta work to do with that Pikachu of yours. It's too rowdy and stupid right now; I don't want the thing lettin' off a Thundershock in the water and killin' everyone," he explained.

Donnie cringed at the image. "I completely get that. Is there anything else I can do though?"

Guzma took what looked like a small buzzer out of his pocket and handed it to the boy. "You can keep watch with Yume, how 'bout that? If ya see anyone strugglin' that I don't spot just buzz that and tell me where they are, I'll go get 'em if ya do."

He grinned, at least he got to do something important. Donnie then looked at his teacher curiously and asked, "why isn't Yume joining in? Can't she swim?"

"She can't see well at all without her glasses and she ain't got a special pair of goggles. Puttin' her in the water would just be dangerous. If ya wanna know more ask her about it, keep her company. It won't be much of a problem in the future though, not if I have anything to say about it…"

Guzma began to head down to the beach before Donnie could reply, mumbling to himself. Donnie watched him, confused, before following. He joined the rest of his class as his teacher approached the Professor.

Kukui clapped his hands together and exclaimed, "woo alright! We're gonna go for a short ride to get to where the activity is! Kavika and Iolana, come here a sec please!"

The students stepped forward and Kukui handed each of them a ride pager. "You both put down that you know how to use a ride pager, yeah? Make sure you adjust the request so that you each call a Lapras without seating, ok?"

Both kids nodded and went about adjusting their pagers as Kukui switched his Sharpedo to a Lapras. Guzma then released his Golisopod; he patted its shell and grinned. "We're gonna go for a bit of a ride, buddy. How's that sound?"

The goliath bug growled happily and nuzzled its trainer, who tried to push it away. Hayley approached the both of them curiously and asked, "don't you have a ride pager Mister Guzma?"

"Nah, broke the last three I had a long time ago and the council wouldn't give me another. Old farts prob'ly didn't like the idea of a guy like me chargin' down the street on a Tauros," he explained before smirking, "that don't matter much anyway, considering there's room for two on Golisopod here? Right, big guy?"

The Pokémon roared proudly and crouched in response, Hayley looked up at it with wide eyes. Guzma gently placed his sunglasses on her face and said, "make sure to sit down and hold onto those rods that come outta his shell, alright?"

Hayley nodded and lifted her arms as Guzma picked her up and placed her on Golisopod's back. The bug type then waded into the water until only the top of its shell and head was exposed. Guzma then followed, climbed onto its back and sat behind Hayley. Golisopod followed after the three Lapras that carried the rest of the class, heading over towards a small rocky island. To Hayley's surprise on the other side of the secluded island was a hidden beach. The class disembarked and unloaded their bags against the rocks; Hayley took Guzma's for him as he stayed on his Pokémon.

Kukui remained on the ride Lapras with Yume and Donnie, he then stood up and addressed the class, "ok guys, here's the deal, yeah?! A bunch of mine and one of Guzma's water Pokémon are wanderin' around down below the waves, each of them is holdin' a bright coloured bag with a water related item in it. There's ten of them, one for each of you! The trick is to actually get them you gotta get creative with the moves your Pokémon use, battling in water is way different to battling on land after all! It might be easier if you work together too! When you get them remember which colour you got, give them to me and you've passed! You get to keep the item in the bag too! There is a catch though, yeah. A lot of my water Pokémon are quite slow, so catchin' up to them and battlin' them would be a bit too easy! So we added an extra layer of difficulty."

Kukui grinned and gestured with his thumb towards Guzma, who still sat on his Golisopod. The other man gave a sly smile and took a breather from his pocket, showing it to the class. "If ya little suckers don't watch out imma come over on Golisopod here and steal what you've grabbed! I'd keep my eyes peeled if I were you, last thing y'all want is to try and take those bags back from me!" He then put the breather in his mouth and stared at the class as his Pokémon lowered the both of them under the water.

The Professor called out, "well, what are you waitin' for?! Get started! I know you all can swim, yeah!"

Donnie watched from his spot on the Lapras's shell as the other students headed out into the water with their Pokémon. He couldn't help but feel like he was missing out, but at least he wasn't alone. Kukui sat down beside the two of them and smiled apologetically. "I'm real sorry I couldn't think of a way for the two of you to participate, next time will be different though, no one will have to sit out. If you two have any questions about the work we've been covering, or anythin' at all, feel free to ask!"

The students thanked him and then sat back to watch the other students. Things were getting a little hectic; waves were even being created by some of the moves that were used. Luckily for them Donnie was on lifeguard duty; he watched closely with the buzzer in his hand.

Very soon Yume turned to him and spoke up, "so… Do you have to sit out because of your glasses too?"

Donnie glanced towards her. "No actually, I'm just nearsighted and I have special goggles. I'm sitting out because Perry is super naughty and might hurt everyone."

Yume frowned. "Ouch… That sucks."

"Yeah… We probably would've done really well too; we do have the strong types against water."

"Oh yeah… Great that makes this worse!" she sounded frustrated now, "like, I can get a naughty Pokémon holding you back, but that can be fixed. My stupid eyes can't be as far as I know… Everything in the water is moving so fast and it's so bright, I can barely focus on anything… I hate this. I hate being so useless…"

Donnie looked at her now. "Hey, you're not useless. None of that is your fault. You know what's useless? Being unable to work together with your Pokémon no matter what you do…"

Yume stiffened when she felt a cap being placed on her head; Kukui crouched between the two of them. "Hey, enough of that. Neither of you are here because you're useless, if anything it's our fault for not bein' creative enough. Now here, look out at Kavika over there... Just wait for it…"

The two of them flinched as the boy shrieked and kicked the water, only to see Guzma emerge to taunt him before being dragged back under by Golisopod; two puppy Pokémon attempted to swim after him as fast as they could.

Kukui chuckled and then asked, "so… See if the two of you can tell me what he was doing wrong there!"

…

The remainder of the lesson went quite successfully. A few students had to rest on the Lapras with their Pokémon, but otherwise everyone managed to succeed. The Professor sat on the ride Pokémon, watching the students casually play in the shallows after lunch; they were going to be absolutely exhausted when they got home.

To his surprise Guzma headed over to him, moved his dripping, bleached hair off of his face and asked, "hey, can you gimmie a hand up? I've been havin' the squirts climb all over me for over an hour and I'm just done…"

Kukui smiled and crouched down, holding a hand out to him. Guzma managed to climb out of the water with his help and said, "thanks," before stretching.

The Professor smiled and replied with a, "don't mention it." But just as he was about to sit Guzma shoved him off of the Lapras into the ocean. Kukui quickly resurfaced and spat out salty water before looking up to see Guzma howling with laughter.

The other man then crouched with a cocky grin and held his hand out to Kukui saying, "ain't exactly fair if I'm the only one outta us that gets wet today! So suck it up and deal with it, Candlenut!"

The Professor couldn't help but laugh as he grabbed his soaking cap and took Guzma's hand. The two of them sat side by side, keeping careful watch over the class as Kukui wringed out his hat and labcoat. Guzma smirked as he watched his Golisopod give the students rides around the island; it hadn't been for a good swim in a long time.

Kukui ran a hand through his hair and looked over at his comrade before taking his glasses off. "So… I was thinkin' of somethin'…"

"Yeah? Whassup?"

"You know how I insisted that after these this week if you didn't want to we'd never have to talk to each other again?"

Guzma raised an eyebrow curiously. "Yeah, what are you gettin' at?"

Kukui smiled warmly. "I was thinking, how about the two of us go for a drink Saturday night? I know things have been rough between us for the better part of almost ten years, but I think we could… Rebuild I guess? Whaddaya say? Wanna catch up on old times?"

Guzma stared at him shocked for a few moments. He then looked down at the ocean, scratched his undercut and quietly said, "yeah… I think I'd like that…"


	19. Chapter 19: Confide

Guzma found himself staring at his reflection in a shop front window at Hau'oli's beachfront, sneering at his appearance as he attempted to fix his slightly outgrown hair; at least he managed to trim his undercut. The night was still young and the Saturday crowd was out in full force; people glanced at him as he passed by, but didn't pay him too much mind. Guzma scrutinized his choice of outfit while waiting for Kukui to appear. Wearing his favourite jacket would've only invited stares as the red masking tape didn't do much to cover up the very obvious Team Skull logo, so he decided to try something different. He wore an old pair of black jeans, a relatively clean white top, his white sneakers and a well-loved purple hoodie that Kukui would surely recognize.

Guzma flinched when Kukui placed a hand on his shoulder and greeted him; it was too loud, he barely heard the other man approach over the sounds of the crowd. The white haired man instantly felt less self conscious seeing his newfound friend; Kukui looked far more casual with his hair down, wearing an unbuttoned Alola style shirt, loose shorts and flip-flops. They didn't stay there to talk though; the one thing Guzma wanted at that moment was to go somewhere quieter. The two of them wasted no time ordering take-away and purchasing alcohol, which Guzma snuck onto the beach inside his jacket. They sat down against the concrete on the sand, looking out at the inky blackness which was the sea, reflecting the clear night sky beautifully.

There was an awkward silence between them as Guzma picked at his hot chips, neither of them were sure of what to say. Kukui was the first to speak up, "so… How's life been?"

Guzma almost choked on his beer trying not to laugh. "Seriously?! Is that how we're fuckin' startin' this, Candlenut?!"

He grinned. "Hey, it's a legitimate question! We're supposed to be catchin' up y'know. Guess I'll ask somethin' else then; how're you findin' your new job? I mean, after all that."

"A lot better than I thought I'd find it. Got somethin' to work on now, got the kids too… I really like those lil' anklebiters, some of 'em are pretty grounding too…"

Kukui smiled knowingly. "Yeah, I found out about that first-hand… It's good to have somethin' positive to work towards, huh?"

Guzma nodded in reply. "It's a lifesaver to be honest; I dunno what I'd be doin' if Asuka didn't give me a shot... Actually, I do know, I'd prob'ly be testin' my skills in the battle tree. Goin' toe to toe with some of the best with Golisopod at my side, fuck that'd be fun! Seriously, why didn't I just think of that in the first place?!"

Kukui shrugged. "Dunno. You wouldn't trade what you have now for that though, would you?"

Guzma didn't even need to think about that as he smirked. "Nah, I got a good thing goin' here. I hardly ever get good thing's goin', so when I do I just run with 'em y'know?"

The other man looked at him curiously and asked, "was Team Skull one of those good things?"

Guzma gave a sad smile and answered, "yeah, it was," before taking another drink.

"I don't exactly understand how running a street gang is a good thing, Guzma."

"Beats bein' homeless on the streets of Malie City and havin' to mug folks to survive, Candlenut."

Kukui furrowed his brow and questioned, "homeless…? Was that what you were doin' after you ran away? Stealin' from people?"

"Gotta do what you gotta do man. I got in with all the wrong sorts a people there, taught me how to survive though. I actually got pretty fuckin' good at pick pocketin' too! And to show you I ain't bullshittin'." Guzma gave a mischievous smirk as he pulled Kukui's wallet out of his jacket pocket.

The Professor's eyes widened and he exclaimed, "what the hell, man!" quickly swiping his wallet and checking how much money was left in it.

Guzma just laughed, "I was gonna give it back! Just waitin' to see if you would notice! You should keep a better eye on your shit, bro!"

Kukui sighed and buried his frustration after realizing that all his belongings were still present. He grumbled, "I'll take your advice on that…"

"In all seriousness though, I don't regret Team Skull; it was the best fuckin' thing I've ever done with my life. Unless somethin' better comes along or this job ain't a fluke nothin' will ever change my mind about that," he admitted before taking a drink and running his fingers through his unruly hair.

"I… Really don't understand that. Why exactly are you so proud of formin' a gang? I mean, you all were pretty harmless, but you were criminals…"

"Cuz it wasn't just a gang, Kukui," he stated with a serious tone, "all of us, we were like a family. Most of my grunts were teenagers ya know? A lotta them had it rough, ran away, got kicked out, had nowhere else to go… Now I'unno how good I was for their situations 'cuz I was a fuckin' asshole half the time, but if there's one thing I came to know, it's that somethin' is really really wrong if someone is leanin' on _me_ for help. And, like-" he gritted his teeth, "Ok I ain't about to air anyone's dirty laundry but I had a bunch that got hurt by their parents in a lotta ways, almost all of 'em had some kinda mental health problem, one guy had a real nasty gambling addiction for example. Some people had someone they wanted to protect or support, others just needed to get away from everythin'. A staggerin' number of 'em were kicked out for bein' who they are and trust me when I say this; if they didn't specifically tell me to just leave it there would've been a lot more people eatin' dirt, I tell ya…

"And that's why I don't regret a thing… Sure I wasn't the best for 'em, far from it. But Team Skull was an escape from all that. A damn respite from the shit in their lives that they needed to just forget about for one single fuckin' day. We did bad things, steal mosta the time, but that was our way of fightin' back at this damn society and the people in it that failed us…" he gave a bitter chuckle at this, "and we were even terrible at that…" Guzma then looked at his companion, who stared back at him, astonished. "Had no idea, huh? Figures… Anyway, I can feel myself goin' off on a rant if we don't get off this topic… So what've you been up to the last couple years? Cool shit I bet."

Kukui blinked. "Oh! Um… Yeah…" he looked back at the ocean, desperate to press Guzma for more information. He was right after all, Kukui did have no idea. The Professor then scratched the back of his head and responded, "mostly just work actually. Been doin' a lot of research on the origins of Pokémon moves, why they came about, their functions inside and outside of battle; all that kinda stuff! I've actually been doin' a thesis analyzin' and comparin' moves originatin' from different regions! That research took me to Kanto 'bout two years ago; I went through their Pokémon league filmin' the battles I had and interviewing people. Damn, their gym leaders sure are a force to be reckoned with; I even made it past the elite four! Couldn't measure up to the champion though, but that wasn't the point of me bein' there, I didn't want to take their place…"

"Heh, I could prob'ly take 'em if I went there. I'd love to see the looks on their faces when a foreign bug type trainer ends up becoming Kanto's champion!" he proclaimed with a cocky grin.

"I'm sure you could. Their bug type trainers aren't exactly the best from what I saw; you'd blow everyone out the water!"

Guzma sat up proudly at that statement and took a swig of his drink, looking back at his companion to spy something silver reflecting the moonlight. He raised an eyebrow in surprise and asked, "you got married?"

Kukui's entire face lit up with joy. "Yeah! Three years ago! You saw the ring, huh?"

"Yeah, nice clean silver…" -he smirked slyly- "so who's the unfortunate sucker that has to put up with you for the rest of their life?"

"Burnet… Oh my god, Burnet… She's the most gorgeous person I've ever met in my entire life, in every way… Why she decided to pick me of all people to marry I'll never truly understand… She's so intelligent, determined, passionate, loving and I just… You'd have to meet her yourself, nothing I could say measures up…" he swooned before taking out his phone to show Guzma a picture he took with her.

Holy crap, someone was absolutely smitten. "Damn… You were right about her bein' beautiful… So, how'd you two meet?"

"Through a project we worked on together! Burnet's from Unova, she's a Professor who studies dreams. Our interests coincided a little and she contacted me to work on a project together. Looooong story short, we got to know each other over that time and started dating after. We were married a year later! We can't live together though, sadly, she works on Akala Island and is normally up at all hours of the mornin' for her research. The two of us tried for a while but it just didn't work out, but we always make time for each other when we can. Mostly we stay over at each other's houses on the weekends, but Burnet was called in after a breakthrough was made and we had to cancel…" he explained disappointedly.

"Glad to know I ain't bein' a cock-block then."

Kukui huffed in amusement. "So, do you have someone special in your life? I mean you haven't mentioned anyone, but didn't you have a thing with the Aether President?" he asked before chuckling and shaking his head, "I can still hardly believe that…" However, his amused turned to concern when he looked over to see the distant look on Guzma's face. "Woah… Hey are you alright?"

He took a shaky breath. "It wasn't like that… At least… I thought it wasn't…? Maybe… I… I don't know what the fuck that was!"

Kukui frowned at his confused tone and quietly asked, "do you want to talk about it?"

"I don't fuckin' know! Maybe?! It doesn't bloody matter what it was actually s'posed to be anyway because everythin' was a fuckin' LIE!"

Kukui recoiled slightly as Guzma suddenly threw sand in front of him.

He took a deep breath, grinding his teeth and gripping the bottle and sand tightly in his hands. "Bitch played me like a fuckin' fiddle and smiled all throughout. Made me think I was worth somethin' for once in my stupid messed up life. I thought she cared about me. Wanted me. Course it was too good to be true. Of fucking COURSE it was! Only thing that narcissistic cunt cared about was havin' a lapdog at her beck and call that would cover her sorry ass and lick the mud off her shoes when they got dirty! And that bullshit went on for over a year! Worst of all, it took her leavin' me to rot in another damn dimension that SHE made me follow her to, to realize!" Guzma turned to his companion, there was nothing but a burning, seething hatred in his voice when he said, "and after all that crap she put me and her own kids through; I honestly wish she never fuckin' woke up from that coma…"

The Professor stared at him, shocked. He had never heard anyone described with such animosity before. He took a breath and spoke slowly, "I… Get where you're coming from… But I don't agree… I don't know what she did to you, but Lillie was happy to have her mother back, that's what's important to me…"

"Well Lillie's gonna fuckin' learn pretty fast that people like that never change."

Kukui looked down at his feet uncomfortably. "…I don't know much about the whole situation other than what Lillie told me, but if what you're sayin' is true, Lillie always has a place with Burnet and I. She's like a daughter to us, I loved havin' her around and we would never ever turn her away. She even called Burnet 'mom' a couple times on accident; I swear it was the cutest thing…"

"I hope that's where she ends up then, rather than fallin' for her damn mother's siren song… " he thought for a while before realizing, "y'know, with how you were gushin' over your wife earlier I'm surprised you don't have a little ankle-biter of your own yet!"

Kukui ran a hand through his hair and exhaled. "That… Won't be happening…"

The other man chuckled. "Good! I already got twelve of the suckers hangin' off of me, I don't need any more!"

Kukui spoke quietly, "Burnet can't have children, Guzma."

Guzma's expression immediately turned to one of guilt and he bit his lip. "Oh shit… Fuck… I'm sorry…"

Kukui shrugged and gave a half smile that didn't reach his eyes. "It's alright… We were thinkin' of adopting... And we have Lillie…" An uncomfortable silence hung in the air between them for a while as they finished their food. The Professor mumbled to himself for a moment before asking, "hey, speakin' of love and all that, what about that old admin of yours? She was pretty."

Guzma paused and sharply inhaled. He looked to Kukui, then to the ocean, then to the sand before taking a drink. "Plumeria… don't really know how to feel about her… I guess there might be somethin' there? I dunno… But she deserves better than me anyway, all I'd do is hurt her."

"Well, somethin' you gotta keep in mind, you can't stop another person for havin' feelings for you even if you think that's what would happen," his companion then smiled and reassured, "from my perspective though after seein' how far you've come firsthand, I'd say that she'd probably be proud to see how you are now!"

Guzma gave a sour sounding chuckle. "Let's be real here, the first thing Plumes would probl'y do if she saw me is punch me. I changed my number over three months ago and cut contact after disbanding Team Skull."

Kukui scowled. "Why?"

"I don't deserve her, or any of the grunts, after what I did..."

"What did you do?"

"Abandoned them and ran off to a freaky dimension with Lusamine! What do you think?!"

"Alright you need to calm down… But seriously, you can't just run away like that. You need to contact her."

Guzma just shrugged in response.

Kukui pinched the bridge of his nose before asking, "are you two friends?"

"She's been my best friend for about four years…"

"All the more reason to contact her! Let her know you're ok!"

"Maybe at some point…"

"Oh for the love of… Fine, but I'll keep pushin' you on this… How'd you meet her anyway?"

"She found me collapsed halfway up Route 12; I didn't have a ride pager so I tried to climb up the mountain myself. Some good advice, don't be stupid like I was and try that! It never ends well! Anyway, after that she nursed me back to health and her family practically forced me to stay at her trailer despite how poor they were. I got to sleep on the floor, which was better than sleepin' under a tree I'll tell ya that… So I stuck around, started tryin' to repay them for lettin' me stay. Plumes never liked takin' money from me 'cuz she never knew where I got it from; there was no jobs in the trailer park, Tapu Village or anythin' ya see? I never wanted to tell her at first, but eventually she pried it outta me, learnt I stole every penny I had and made me teach her how to do it too."

"Sounds like you were a bad influence…"

"When you're in a situation like she was you'd do anythin' to survive Kukui. She was fuckin' desperate I tell ya, and I don't blame her… Her mother couldn't work, at the time all three of 'em were no good at battlin', there were no jobs in Tapu Village and she couldn't afford to move to Malie City to work… No ride pager either…" –he closed his eyes and exhaled, lowering his voice- "I remember the day when Tapu Bulu destroyed the Megamart they were building on Ula'ula… She was so damn excited when they were buildin' it… Finally she was gonna actually be able to support her family… I remember holdin' her that day in front of the buildin' as it was goin' up in flames… I have never seen her cry harder…"

"…Was that why you started Team Skull…? For her…?"

"…No… It was the reason Plumeria wanted to start it though, a good way to support her family… So she ended up my admin and her younger twin siblings Poppy and Jarred were the first grunts… The four of us moved to Po Town after raiding the place for anythin' valuable; it was already abandoned at that point so we just set up shop. After that more and more people started comin' by, more kids started showin' up, started scoutin' for members after a while… I didn't expect Team Skull to become big at all, it was just gonna be the four of us fuckin' around burglin' people but it grew to nearly seventy… It just blew up and turned into this massive refuge for outcasts and rejects with nowhere else to go and no hopes in the world, and I ended up in the centre of it…"

"Do you feel like you made a difference in their lives…? In a good way?"

"I don't know… I don't think so to be honest… Back then I just turned into an asshole; all I ended up doin' in the end was ruinin' their reputations. I mean, who the fuck would wanna hire an ex Team Skull grunt?"

Kukui smiled a little. "You may be surprised, I've heard that a lot of them have good lives now that the team's been disbanded."

Guzma laughed sadly. "And no thanks to me I'll tell ya that… They're strong kids, that there is their own strength and determination comin' out… Y'know, I used to think I was such hot shit bein' surrounded by a gang of loyal teens who would've prob'ly thrown themselves off the balcony if I told them to. But, that only goes so far ya know…? If things went differently with the whole Ultra Space thing and I never came back I don't think anyone would'a missed me for long… I had to be saved by Lillie, who was there for her mom, and Moon, who was there for Lillie… No one came for me… I know it's selfish sayin' that, like I expected someone to show up to save my sorry ass, but it's what made me realize…"

"That's not true! The part about no one carin' about you… I can guarantee-"

Guzma quickly cut in, "yes it is! Even if they do they prob'ly shouldn't! Also, don't even think of pullin' any of that 'I would've missed you' bullshit! 'Cuz lets be real here, at the time if I went missin' you would've just sighed all 'well that's the path he chose to walk down, hope it worked out for him!' while knowin' full well it didn't…"

Kukui felt a pang of guilt in his chest hearing that. He looked down at himself and put a hand to his forehead. Would he really have thought that if Guzma never came back…? Mentally he insisted to himself that he wouldn't have, but inside he wasn't completely sure.

Everything else faded into the background as he thought about it, causing him to jump when Guzma shouted, "HEY!"

He looked at his companion, startled.

"Fuckin' spacin' out on me there… I was tryin' to change the damn subject; so how's the Pokémon league workin' out for you?"

"Oh, that… Um… It's been goin' really well, we get about three challengers per day on average. No one's been able to take the crown from Moon yet though."

"I ain't surprised."

"Neither am I… We've had trainers from all over the world challenge the league too, I reckon you should give it a shot one day."

Guzma shrugged. "Nah, I don't got the time to be champion… Do all those battles and shit get broadcast on TV?"

"Yeah! The entire region sees them."

He scowled. "Well there's another reason not to challenge the league… Last thing I want right now is to know the whole region is booin' me, screamin' at Moon to kick my ass…"

Kukui frowned in response. "They didn't do that to Plumeria."

Guzma paused and looked at him. "What?"

"Didn't you know? She's defeated the Elite Four and challenged Moon twice, her poison type team is absolutely spectacular to watch!"

"I had no idea…" he admitted.

"Well… I could give you a link to the footage so you could watch, but only if you agree to talk to her! Seriously! You need to contact her!" urged Kukui.

Guzma groaned, "I can just look it up myself…"

Kukui sighed, "look… You can't run away forever, Guzma…"

"I know, but I can keep it up until I'm outta breath and outta drink!" he proclaimed, finishing his first bottle. He then glanced over to see Kukui shooting him a critical glare. "Oh come on… We'll talk about this later alright? We did our catchin' up; let's go have some fun, Candlenut!"

Kukui held the glare before giving in. "Fine fine… But I'm not gonna let you forget this!"

He grinned. "Fair enough."

The hours passed by in a blur; the two men decided to move on to happier subjects as they toured the Hau'oli night life. Nostalgically recalling adventures long since passed and reconciling with each other after nearly ten years of bad blood; they even managed to take a selfie for old times' sake. By the time the night came to an end, Kukui felt as though he had a better understanding of his old friend, that a lot of the mud had been cleared away. He began to grow tired and sober as the witching hour approached and decided to get some air outside of the bar with Guzma. He leant against the wall, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I think I've had it for tonight, cousin."

Guzma laughed heartily. "Oh come on! I ain't even drunk yet! This is nothin'! Fuckin' hell you don't get out much do ya?!"

Kukui unbuttoned his shirt, letting the crisp midnight air cool him down. "You're right, I don't. There's always other nights though, it's not like this is the last one we've got or anythin'! But seriously, I'm done. I'd be more than happy to hang out again some other time though!"

He grinned and patted Kukui's shoulder. "Same here! Dammit why do I gotta be the one to break ya in?"

Kukui chuckled. "Just your customary bad luck I guess… Hmm… Tell ya what, if you're not plannin' on stayin' out how 'bout I walk you to your parent's house? I haven't spoken to your folks in a while."

Guzma waved a hand dismissively. "Nah… Even if I was stayin' out that would never happen 'cuz I don't live with 'em anymore…"

"Oh, alright, I thought you moved back in with them after you got back from your trip with Hala?"

"I did, that didn't last long though…"

Kukui shrugged. "So where're you stayin' then? Hala's?"

Guzma slowly looked away and said, "no, I'm not livin' with Hala."

The Professor blinked. "A friend's place?"

"I don't got no friends on Melemele, at least ones I can stay with." He flashed Kukui a grateful smile. "Until now anyway."

Kukui felt flattered, but that feeling was quickly replaced with concern. "Well where are you living then? Did you rent a place? An apartment?"

Guzma gave a dry laugh and remarked, "who in their fuckin' right mind would rent me a place?! Have you SEEN the state of Po Town?! Fuck that's like lettin' a Tauros into a china shop in their eyes!"

"Ok you have a point, but that doesn't matter right now. Where are you staying?"

"Nowhere in particular."

Kukui snapped, "cut the crap, Guzma! Where are you staying?!"

Guzma shoved his hands in his pockets and looked away. "Tch… I told you, nowhere in particular. But fine, you wanna see my place? Follow me; hope you're not too tired."

What followed was a roundabout trip through the backstreets of Hau'oli city, then to the outer suburbs more inland. They were mostly silent during their walk. Half an hour passed, Kukui thought to himself that surely they must be close by now, but Guzma just kept passing by house after house. Dread only began to well up in Kukui's stomach once Guzma turned on a torch and started down a dark trail leading into the forest, he followed apprehensively nonetheless. Where the hell were they going? The Professor didn't even know this path existed. Guzma… wasn't leading him into some kind of trap, was he? No, he couldn't be, that was a stupid thought. Even if he was Kukui had his entire team of trusty Pokémon and his own strength to back him up, he had nothing to worry about.

Those doubtful thoughts were quickly replaced by a different kind of dread when Kukui got a look at what was at the end of the path. An old, white derelict house with boarded up windows and a water damaged roof was illuminated by Guzma's torch. There was a pile of hard rubbish in front of it and to his left Kukui spotted a destroyed "for sale" sign haphazardly hidden behind a bush. He gaped at the sight in front of him; no way Guzma was actually living here, right? Any doubt about that was dispelled when a familiar Ariados crawled down onto the wall from the roof. Guzma switched on a solar generator hidden behind a pile of rubbish, causing a few dim lights inside the house to illuminate the area. The spider cooed under its trainer's hand; Guzma then fed it a poke bean, returned it and headed through the unlocked front door.

The Professor could not form words when he slowly followed his friend through the hall, taking in the desolate, worrisome surroundings. The walls and doors he passed by were clearly damaged, fist shaped holes and kicked in dents littered the place. Kukui swore some of those holes were created by a knife. He carefully avoided stepping on broken glass as he followed Guzma into the master bedroom.

Kukui blankly stared at the room in front of him from the doorway. A single, dirty mattress with screwed up covers lay on the ground, beside it was a large black stereo surrounded by CDs, bottles of whiskey and rum. He looked up, the walls were damaged similarly to the hallway and everything was an absolute mess. There were filled and empty water bottles scattered around and long life food packaging amongst them. There was a small pile of dirty laundry situated in one corner beside a massive bag of Pokémon food and a portable stove. Situated in the driest, neatest corner was a makeshift knee high desk made of cardboard boxes, on top of which sat a few stacks of paper, a notebook, a bag and a laptop.

It took Guzma speaking up to make Kukui realize that he had been holding his breath, the man had picked up a bottle of whiskey and wore a grin that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Home sweet home, ey Candlenut? I know it ain't much but the night's still young! Plenty of time to get absolutely fuckin' wasted, just the two of us! How 'bout it? I ain't had a drinkin' buddy in ages!"

Kukui gaped at him in horror. "What the FUCK?! You're not for real are you?! THIS is where you've been?! You've been living like this?!"

Guzma rolled his eyes and remarked, "tch, overreaction much? Anyone can see it ain't ideal but it beats bein' out in the rain all night, I actually got a roof over my head!"

"'Far from ideal'?! Guzma you are squattin' in a run-down house in the middle of fucking nowhere! WHY are you here?!" he yelled.

"Why else would I be here?! I ain't got nowhere else to go!"

"I can name a bunch of damn places you could go right off the top of my head! Let's start with the obvious! Your parent's house!"

Guzma's grin contorted to one of rage as he chucked the bottle to the side. His voice became a quiet growl as he stated, "because even a place twenty times as bad as this would never be worse than that shithole of a house…"

The Professor gawked in disbelief and dropped his hands to his sides. "So you've decided to be homeless because you don't get along with your damn folks?!"

"'Don't get along'? DON'T GET ALONG?! You don't even know the motherfuckin' HALF of it! At least here I ain't reminded of how much of a fuck up I am every two damn seconds! Here, I get to do whatever the fuck I want without bein' judged constantly! Here, I don't have to worry 'bout bein' second best all the time! Here, I never have to see that fucking cart bag sittin' in the corner of the lounge! Here, I never have to see HIM again!"

Kukui blinked and lowered his voice, "who the hell are you talkin' about?! Your dad?!"

"Who the fuck else would I be talkin' about?! I… ARGGGHHH!" Guzma gripped the sides of his head tightly before laying three jabs into the wall beside him.

Kukui instinctively took a step back before taking two steps forward. The anger and frustration in his voice had completely shifted to fear and concern. He slowly put his hands up in front of him and calmly asked, "Guzma, what is going on? I… I don't know what you're talkin' about…"

Guzma smiled manically and began to approach Kukui. "You wanna fuckin' know? Cuz I'll tell you! I'll tell you about everythin' your blind ass overlooked!" Kukui watched as Guzma shoved past him, storming down the hall. He followed the white haired man outside; Guzma took a shaky breath and shook both of his hands before turning to his companion. "Did you ever fuckin' question anythin' when we were kids? Did you ever wonder for a single moment why I ran off?"

"Of course I questioned why you ran away! You used to be my best friend! For a long time every day I sat there and wondered what the hell turned a fun, happy kid into a teenage thug that sics a damn _Golisopod_ on his own father before boltin' off into the night!" he accused.

Guzma stared wide eyed before clenching his fist and growling, "is that what he fuckin' told you?"

Kukui swallowed and stared him down. "I think the broken ribs spoke loud enough."

He then took a few steps toward his companion. "A happy kid doesn't sneak outta their house in the middle of the night with nothin' but a bag and his Pokémon. A happy kid doesn't shit his fuckin' pants when the lights come on while he's half out the front door. A happy kid doesn't run for their damn life when the screamin' starts! A happy kid doesn't cower in fear when he trips in the mud! A happy kid ain't used to practise their father's golf swing on Kukui!"

The Professor stood there, staring into his tired, rage filled eyes, unable to form words as numerous cogs clicked into place in his head.

"You wanna know why he got fucked up that night?! 'Cuz my little Wimpod had enough of cowerin' under my bed when it started. He had enough of tryin' to comfort a bruised, cryin' child who cowered just as much as he did! He had enough of standin' by and watchin' it happen! So my little fuckin' pathetic Wimpod evolved and gave that son of a bitch a first impression he'll never ever forget!"

Kukui blinked, ripped his gaze from Guzma's and tried to quell the shaking in his hands. "You… I-I… I-I had no idea…"

"You had no idea about a lot of things…"

He then returned Guzma's stare, angry and upset. "Why the hell didn't you tell me about any of this?!"

"Like you would've believed me…"

"Don't tell me what I would've believed! I could've done something!"

"Like what, Kukui?! Call the cops and have 'em come to my house, find nothin' and then get my ass beat later that night because he thought I called them?!"

"I could've supported you! Been there for you! Told Hala!"

"And why the fuck would I have told you?! I HATED YOU!" Kukui froze as Guzma attempted to take a breath and lower his voice. "When we were kids I wanted to fuckin' be as good as you… Hell, I waned to _be_ you… 'Cuz I was never good enough in anythin' and you were perfect, man…"

He tried to cut in, "I wasn't-"

Guzma quickly snapped, "what you actually were wasn't the point! You could actually be proud of how far you got even if you lost, you didn't have to work half as hard as me to achieve more, there was nothin' hidin' behind any of your smiles because you had nothin' to hide! I… wanted everythin' you had… And when I realized I could never have that I wanted to drag you down, make you feel as horrible as I did every day… The amount of times I fantasized about jumping you and kicking the shit out of you, I swear… But… You didn't fuckin' deserve that… I didn't deserve to get to do that… So I backed off…"

"That's why… Guzma… You should've told someone… Even if you couldn't tell me Hala would've helped…"

He shook his head. "I didn't want nothin' to do with him either…"

Kukui paused for a moment to think before asking, "how long has this been goin' on?"

"Since I can remember, got worse after I finished my Island Challenge," he stated.

"It started up again when you got back didn't it?"

Guzma's rage filled expression quickly returned. "Yeah, it did! Why I expected anythin' less I'll never know! I even decided to be the bigger man for once! Bury the hatchet! Maybe eight years calmed the fat fuck down! But nooooo… I had to fuckin' lock my bedroom door like a scared pathetic ten year old again! Barely be seen in my own damn house! I managed to keep that up for three weeks, new record I'm pretty sure, then we got into a fight because how dare his failure, criminal son even set foot back home! So I tried to back off, usin' a couple calmin' tricks that Hala taught me, and the motherfucker attacks me! I had to get Golisopod to pull his ass off me! Do you have any fuckin' IDEA how embarrassin' it was to go to work the next day and have my kids see me with a huge swollen black eye that stuck around for the next two weeks?!"

"No, I don't… But Guzma, you're twenty five! Why'd you need your Pokémon to help?! Didn't you fight back?!"

"Oh yeah, genius fuckin' idea! Assault my dad! Have him call the cops and tell 'em his dipshit son Guzma, y'know, the ex GANG BOSS, attacked him and that he desperately fought back in self defence! Who the hell do you think they'd believe?!"

Kukui looked away in silence, his clenched fists shaking.

He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "Exactly."

Kukui then quietly asked, "did your mother do anythin'…? He isn't hurting her too, is he?"

Guzma closed his eyes tightly and pulled at his hair. "Fffuck! Don't put that image in my head!" he screamed before picking up a bottle and lobbing it at the wall, shattering it. He took a number of steps back and ran his hands over his face, attempting to quell his shaking. He answered in a low voice, "as far as I know he never did, it was only me…" he then looked up with a torn expression on his face, "but she never… _never_ stepped in… I guess she was scared too but she never even fuckin' looked my way when it was happenin'… Never came into my room after… It's like it never happened to her… See no evil hear no evil I guess…

" Still, I'm so fuckin' glad it was never her… 'Cuz if I find out he laid a damn finger on even a single one of her hairs I'll beat his damn face into the wall until y'all wouldn't recognize him! I swear I'd do it! I'd kill the bastard and let the cops take me in with a fuckin' smile on my face!"

Kukui held his hands out in front of him. "Ok… Calm down a little… I'd feel the same way if it was my mom… Just… Deep breaths, alright…?"

Guzma stepped back, gripping his hair and shaking his head. He growled before picking up an old wooden chair from the rubbish pile and smashed it against the wall, snapping the wood. He then dropped his hands to his sides, closed his eyes and took a few breaths. "Ok… Ok…"

Kukui stepped forward a little, keeping his voice low. "You still can't stay here… What about Hala…?" he suggested calmly.

"I can't live with him…"

"Why? You took a month long trip with the guy not too long ago, yeah?"

There was a distant look in Guzma's eye momentarily before he folded his arms and shook his head, hunching over further. "I just… It would start up there too…"

Kukui looked almost offended. "That's not true and you know it."

He inhaled sharply and scratched the back of his head. "I know… But with what he used to be like when I was a kid, gettin' fuckin' loud and angry when I messed up… I know he mellowed right out, I saw that on our trip… But even then there was this constant anxiety, I knew I was gonna mess somethin' up and it was just a matter of time… I mean, he's a great mentor… Amazin' Master… But I couldn't live like that, not to mention his huge-ass family constantly starin' at me and whisperin' shit behind my back… I just can't do it… Not again…"

The Professor looked from his shaking friend, to the decrepit house and then back to him. Anxiety could be beaten, his family's trust could've been built over time; did he not consider that? In Kukui's mind, no rational thinking person would choose somewhere like this over Hala's home. Nevertheless he couldn't force Guzma to stay there.

As he considered their options Guzma spoke up again, the fire in his voice gone, "don't need to worry 'bout me, I've been in worse situations… I'm just… Tired… Of everythin'… Night didn't even go as planned; I thought I'd get to feel numb with someone else for once… I just wanted one night where I didn't have to come back here and feel like garbage… I'm tired of livin' like this, Kukui… Tired of feelin' like this… I am so, so fucking tired…"

He then turned around and stared out into the forest. Kukui slowly moved to his side him, noticing how his shoulders had begun to tremble. He gently placed a hand on his back, Guzma hunched over further in response; Kukui heard his breath begin to hitch. "Hey… It's ok, cousin… It's ok…" He then slowly pulled Guzma down into a hug, whispering, "everything will be ok…" After a few moments Guzma buried his head into his shoulder and held onto him tightly. Breathy sobs racking his body. They stood there together for what felt like hours, neither of them willing to pull away.

Kukui refused to leave him there that night, after nearly an hour of gentle and then aggressive coaxing Guzma allowed him to help pack the place up. With their Pokémon's assistance they moved what little belongings Guzma owned in the dead of night, through the outskirts of Hau'oli, past the trainer's school and down a thin dirt path to a familiar beachside house.

It was now the early hours of the morning. Guzma sat on the sofa bed up on the loft, taking in his surroundings as if he was in a dream. Despite his protests, Kukui insisted that this space was his now, at least until he found somewhere to call his own. It was almost surreal, seeing his stereo on top of Kukui's white dresser and his prized jacket hanging off of the desk chair. The Professor stopped halfway down the ladder and assured, "if you need anythin' you just gotta ask, ok?"

Guzma looked at him then down at his shoes. "Yeah… Thanks… But I think I got everythin' I need right now…"


	20. Chapter 20: Vatonage

Guzma's eyes slowly creaked open as the light streaming through the skylight above drifted onto his face. He rubbed his eyes and blinked tiredly as he pushed himself upright. The young man flinched as his surroundings came into focus; wait, where the hell was he?! Hang on… He was on the loft in Kukui's house. The events of the previous night burned in his mind's eye as he winced and looked at his watch; it was a little past midday. At least he actually managed to sleep for once, despite crashing from the stress alone. Guzma stood, bracing himself on the corner of the desk beside the sofa bed. It felt odd to see what little belongings he had scattered all over it, he would need to organize them eventually.

Guzma collected his usual outfit, but just before he began to change he realized there were no walls, the loft was quite exposed. He stared awkwardly at the Murkrow perched on the railing before throwing his clothes over his shoulder, turning and heading down the ladder. Later he would ask Kukui to put it away at night, the thought of it watching him sleep made him uncomfortable. As he made his way to the bathroom he stumbled over the Stufful, Rockruff and Snubbul that ran in front of him. He entered the bathroom grumbling, Kukui letting his damn Pokémon just roam all over his house was already beginning to annoy him.

He shut the door behind him and splashed his face with water before squinting at himself in the mirror. Guzma ran his fingers through the black hair that was previously his undercut, its softness contrasting the rough bleached mess above it. It clearly needed a trim, along with a redye. He wiped the sleep from his tired eyes, the bags under them were especially pronounced that morning. He scratched the stubble along his jaw line, looking at the old scar on his upper right arm while he was at it. Damn… Iolana was right; he had really let himself go, hadn't he?

Guzma then changed his shirt and his pants; he balled his dirty clothes up and threw them up onto the loft while heading to the kitchen area. Kukui's house was quite spacious, Guzma was glad about that as the distinct lack of defined rooms made it easy to work out where everything was. He looked through the cupboard to find a box of cereal and made himself a quick breakfast; he would pay Kukui back for it later, even though he'd probably say no. The Professor distinctly said he didn't owe him anything aside from keeping the place clean and respecting his property. But Guzma insisted he pay his own way, he didn't want 'freeloader' to become part of his already tarnished reputation. Besides, there was no reason he couldn't; he had an income for once.

He leaned against the counter, eating a bowl of cereal as he took in his surroundings properly. From what he could see Kukui had a lot of nice things, that large plasma screen TV in the sitting area for example. But despite how clean and orderly everything was Guzma couldn't ignore that the entire place was a patch-job. Just the sight of the wooden boards that were nailed over the holes in the wall, roof and door irritated him to no end. Did Candlenut not know how to fix something properly? Or was he just lazy? Stupid bastard was probably making his Pokémon use Hyper Beam or something just as idiotic inside the house, smashing everything to pieces. Guzma mentally noted to take it upon himself at a later time to fix those breakages later; simply looking at them was pissing him off.

He stood up off the counter and slowly strolled around the ground floor of the home, but he couldn't peel his eyes away from the giant tank up the back. Holy shit, it was huge. It seemed to descend into the basement too. He couldn't help but feel envious just looking at it, the Professor got to have a massive, cool tank filled with Luvdisc and Corsola while back in Po Town all he got was a broken swimming pool. But, after thinking more about it, Guzma realized that since he lived there now so he could enjoy the tank whenever he wanted to. Sure, he could accept that.

The man then turned around, his eyes drifted to the stairs leading to the basement; apparently that's where Kukui's whole laboratory was. He tapped his foot and mulled over whether to take a peek, but then decided against it. If he spilt moomoo milk all over the Professor's stuff he would probably either kill him or kick him out. No way was he going to risk that, he actually had a stable roof over his head for once. At least, he was sure he did? Those nailed-on patches on the roof were not very reassuring.

Guzma then decided to head outside, he closed his eyes momentarily when he stepped out onto the veranda, feeling the warm midday sun on his face. He then sat down on the wooden stairs, taking the time to savour the cereal; he hadn't had milk in quite a while. Closing his eyes he inhaled the salty sea air, there wasn't much wind today and aside from the gentle lapping of the waves everything was quiet. Too quiet. Guzma felt his thoughts creeping up on him so he took his phone out of his pocket. He looked at his reflection through the cracked screen, in his eyes it reflected exactly how he was feeling in that moment.

The man then unlocked his phone; it wasn't likely that any sort of news or social media would be able to distract him from thoughts of last night, so he selected his contact list, looking for a specific young student to talk to. A pang of guilt then swiftly stabbed him through the stomach as he stared at the first name on his contact list: Plumeria. His hands shook slightly. He hadn't called her in such a long time, a few months at the least. She probably hated him by now, no scratch that, _definitely_ hated him. He licked his lips as his breath began to hitch. He left her behind; he abandoned her without a single word, twice. What kind of heartless, selfish _monster_ does that to someone they care about? The one staring at him through the glass, that's who.

Guzma's thumb hovered over her name. He didn't deserve to talk to her. He didn't deserve the privilege of being around her. He wanted to see her again so badly yet knew inside that the best thing he ever do for her is stay away; that way he could protect her from the one thing that never failed to hurt her.

Teardrops landed on the shattered glass as he clicked the lock button on his phone. Guzma put it back in his pocket and buried his face in his hands. He bit his lip hard; not again, _not fucking again!_ Why the hell was he getting so emotional lately?! This kind of thing just didn't happen to him! He shook his head and tugged at his hair, embarrassed by his own selfishness and lack of strength. Even after slowly learning to let himself cry he didn't even deserve it after what he did to her. _Guzma! What the hell is wrong with-_

A sudden shout caused him to jolt and gasp. He quickly scanned the beach in panic for the source of the noise. His gaze soon locked onto a figure in the distance, silhouetted against the harsh sunlight. Guzma rubbed his now stinging eyes before focusing again, there was a figure, with two smaller Pokémon running around near them midway down the beach about 50m away he guessed. He blinked, they weren't an adult that was for sure, but he couldn't see them clearly at a distance.

One of the two Pokémon then stopped suddenly, facing him. Guzma tilted his head, trying to work out what it was doing. It then suddenly began bolting towards him, it was a Rockruff. Oh for the love of… He put his cereal down and braced himself before the excited puppy leaped straight onto his lap and began licking his face, rubbing the rocks in its neck fur into his skin. "Ow! Hey stop that!" he yelled, grabbing the dog and holding it away from him. The Rockruff just looked at him excitedly; its entire rear end was wagging side to side. Guzma furrowed his brows and stared back at it confused before its trainer came into focus in front of him.

"Hey, get off of him!" commanded Kavika, the Pokémon obliged and ran between the boy's legs. He frowned at it before saying, "sorry about that Sir! I didn't think anyone would be out here!" –he then looked up at his teacher, causing his eyes to widen with concern- "woah… Are you ok?"

Aww fuck… This was one of the last things he wanted one of his students to see. He inhaled sharply, rested his arms on his knees and admitted, "no... I ain't feelin' too good right now, Kavika…"

Kavika shifted awkwardly where he stood and looked around before quietly asking, "do you want me to leave you alone, sir…?"

Guzma thought to himself for a moment, wiping the offending tears from his eyes. "Nah… It's alright. Kinda wanted someone to talk to anyway if you're up for it... So what are you doin' out here this mornin'?"

"Um, it's the afternoon… And I'm taking my Pokémon for a walk; they love splashing in the waves with me and I was seeing if there were any Pyukumuku that wandered too far up the shore... What are you doing at the Professor's lab by the way? I thought you two didn't like each other all that much?" he asked as he slowly dug his toes further and further into the sand.

Guzma looked him up and down; the boy was wearing a rash vest and his favourite swim trunks, there was sand all over his legs. He glanced momentarily at the two dog Pokémon which were now play fighting on the beach. "We didn't, but times change; I live here now," he explained, "also keep an eye on those two! Never know where a Palossand could be hidin'!"

Kavika quietly gasped at that realization and whistled sharply, both Pokémon rushed over to him and sat by his feet as he commanded them to stay. "Thanks… So why do you live here now? Didn't you like your last house?"

Guzma's posture stiffened and he looked away. "Let's just say I wasn't doin' too well and leave it at that…"

The boy put his thumbs in his pockets, his teacher looked quite guarded. He decided not to press further. "Is there, um, anything I can do to cheer you up?"

The man shrugged. "Probably not, just keep talkin'…" He then noticed something odd sticking out of the boy's pocket; he tilted his head and asked, "what's that you've got there?"

Kavika appeared momentarily confused and felt his pockets, his eyes then lit up when he took the object out. To Guzma it looked like a green walkie-talkie coupled with a spinning top. "It's my capture styler! Well, it's only a trainee one, but it still works a little!" he grinned widely. Whoa, looks like his front tooth has been fixed.

"Capture styler? The hell is that? Some newfangled toy I ain't ever heard of?"

Kavika looked slightly annoyed at that assumption. "It's not a toy! It's a tool that Pokémon rangers use to befriend wild Pokémon so they can help on missions! This one can only befriend one at a time though, and not for very long. It is just a trainee one after all."

He raised an eyebrow. "Befriend? Why not just catch them?"

"Cuz that way they can go home after they help you… Rangers need a really huge range of Pokémon for any kind of mission; it would be cruel to just keep like fifty Pokémon in boxes when you're not using them!"

Guzma stood up on the stairs and stretched before leaning against the guard rail. "You got a point there… How's that thing work?"

Kavika grinned. "Follow me!"

He then curiously followed his student a small way up the beach, the dogs racing around his legs full of energy. Guzma squinted and shielded his eyes from the sun, he regretted not bringing his shades outside; but nevertheless the cool sea breeze relaxed him.

The boy stopped nearby a Pyukumuku that had wandered onto the beach, did a unique pose and called out, "capture on!" At that moment the antenna on the styler extended, the device released the small spinning top which connected to the antenna via a glowing blue stream of light. Kavika skilfully looped the light around the sea cucumber, the light stream then shone yellow around the Pokémon, causing it to glow momentarily. The loop then disappeared and the spinning top returned to the styler, Kavika grinned enthusiastically and exclaimed, "capture complete!" The Pyukumuku gave a peace sign in response.

Guzma's eyes were now wide, "holy shit… So, you can do whatever you want with it now, right?"

"Yep!" The two dog Pokémon ran around the sea cucumber in excitement.

"Damn… So… What do rangers actually do then..? I don't really know to be honest," he admitted.

"Oh! Well they work for Ranger Union HQ; that's in a really far away region that doesn't use any pokeballs and stuff. The way things are over there is super weird actually..." he looked at his feet for a moment wondering what to explain before getting back on track, "ok so basically they're the heroes of their regions! They help take care of natural disasters, calm down wild Pokémon that are causing trouble, rescue people and take down poachers and villain teams!"

Guzma crossed his arms and smirked. "Heh… I know a thing or two about that! You could come to me for some advice about that if ya wanted to!"

Kavika snapped straight to attention and stared up at his teacher, his eyes shining. "Oh my god… Were _you_ a ranger Sir?!"

His teacher immediately looked confused and quickly shook his head, correcting, "no! I just said I didn't know what they even did… I was tryin' to imply that I was a bad guy kid…"

The boy's expression turned to one of worry. "What…?"

Guzma grinned widely. "Ex boss of the Pokémon thief gang Team Skull at your service kid! I ain't about that life no more though, so if you wanna know a little about how someone like me thinks then just ask!"

"Oh my god… Oh my god oh my _god!_ That's _amazing!_ You're a real ex bad guy?! Holy crap we have to play ranger together at some point! You can be the villain!" He looked more excited than Guzma had ever seen him.

The man stood up straight, surprised at such an oddly positive reaction. "Uh… Not right now, it's too early and I think I had stuff to do…? Things are a little hazy right now, can't remember too good."

Kavika shrugged. "There's always lunch at school, and well Donnie said you were supposed to be meeting him to train today."

Guzma quickly checked his watch and sighed in relief, that meet-up wasn't scheduled for at least another two hours. "Well… I got a little time but I ain't in the mood, so no. Also, a question; where the hell did you get that styler thing? That ain't somethin' you just give out…

The excited look on Kavika's face faded, he looked down at the styler in his hand and smiled sadly. "My mom gave this to me; she was a ranger, a really really good one too. And you're right, they don't just give these out, she took it from the school so I could practise myself…"

"'Was' a ranger?"

"She… Went missing a year ago on a really important mission…"

Guzma inhaled sharply and frowned. "Fuck… I'm sorry kid…"

The boy looked up at him confused. "Why are you sorry? She's still alive… I know she is! She's still out there somewhere in that faraway region and one day I'm gonna go there and find her!"

His teacher momentarily bit his lip before rubbing the back of his neck. He asked in a low voice, "so that's why you wanna be a ranger, huh?"

Kavika then looked up at him, conflicted, before dropping his hands to his sides and shrugging. He seemed disheartened. "I don't know…"

Guzma raised an eyebrow. "The heck does that mean?"

"I… Wouldn't make a very good ranger…"

His expression darked. "After what I just saw I'm almost offended by that… Why the hell not?"

"I just wouldn't…? That's what I'm told at least… My sister doesn't want me to be a ranger… I want to find mom but she gets really angry when I talk about it… I know I'm not as good at her at battling but I'm not that old, I can get better! I want to get better… But every time I try to get better with the styler she always gets in the way somehow… Right now, I wouldn't be very good..."

"And you're gonna keep lettin' her get in the way of that?"

"Well… I don't have many other times to practise or anything…"

Guzma folded his arms and leaned down. "Then do it at school, go for more walks. Or hell, stand up to her… If you wanna do this and find your mom then you better get your ass over to that ranger school, don't let her dictate what you can and can't do! But whatever you find when you get there is out of your hands, remember that, alright?"

Kavika swallowed, exhaled and nodded. "Ok…"

"You know what you gotta do… Unlike me I guess…"

"What's up…?"

He faced away from the sun. "I just feel a little lost, kid… Not exactly sure what to do next…"

"Well… You have to meet up with Donnie soon and he told me that next weekend you have a competition to go to with Minnie I think?" reminded Kavika.

"Oh yeah… I also gotta make a call about somethin'… I should go do that…"

Kavika smiled. "Ok, you go then! I gotta-" a number of chimes from his pocket swiftly cut the boy off. He checked his phone and groaned loadly. "Oh my god, I get it!"

Guzma looked at him, confused. "Get what?"

"Ugh… My sister wants me to come home right now and Keahi just sent me like, twenty messages about me coming to her house. Every night I get like, fifty messages from her! She's my friend but oh my god it's too much sometimes…" he then sighed in frustration, "I just keep having girls blow up my phone! Do you have the same problem Sir?"

The man then smirked and said, "heh… I wish I did."


	21. Chapter 21: On Hold

The underground floor was peacefully quiet, aside from Kukui's gentle snoring. The Professor had fallen asleep at his desk after staying up all night working on a report, his Rockruff on his lap and Poliwhirl by his side. His rest was only disturbed after his shoulder was lightly shaken. The man's eyes peered open, only to spot Guzma leaning on the desk beside him. Kukui wiped a small amount of drool from his chin and yawned as he tiredly asked, "oh hey cousin, what's up? It's not midnight or something is it?"

"Nah, it's about six at night. Heh, and you say I'm the one with a shit sleep pattern," Guzma snickered.

Kukui rubbed his eyes and stretched in his chair. "That's because it is." He then blinked for a few moments and looked at Guzma properly; the man held a number of paper bags in his hands and to Kukui's surprise, appeared to have cleaned himself up. His hair had been cut, redyed white and his stubble shaved; he also appeared slightly less tired. "Woah... You actually look good cousin!"

Guzma smirked, "you say that like I don't always look fuckin' amazing."

The Professor gently stroked the Rockruff in his lap. "I'll be honest with you right now Guzma, you didn't. But anyway, what's up? Did you wanna talk? What's up with the bags? Did'ja go shopping or somethin'?"

To his surprise Guzma let out a groan as he suddenly dropped the bags to the floor. He pinched the bridge of his nose and grumbled, "yeah I did! Those damn kids I swear to god!"

Kukui tilted his head curiously. "Huh? What happened?"

"I got duped, that's what! Hayley wanted to catch up after school to learn some more bug catchin' tricks and I was all 'sure, why not! This'll be fun! Somethin' like this is just what I need today!' So I meet up with her in Hau'oli rather than Melemele Meadow; which should'a been my first warnin' but then again I'm fuckin' stupid so I don't think anythin's off… So I get to where we agreed on, expectin' just Hayley, but there were six of the little anklebiters there! Minnie, Keahi, Jon, Iolana and Curtis for some damn reason were all waitin' for me! So I was all 'ok what the fuck I thought this was just gonna be a lil' bug buddies outing', and then it actually turns out we were never goin' bug catching, we were going shopping!

"The little shits then dragged me to every damn boutique in the city, pretty much forcing me to try on new clothes and shit. Iolana made me get my hair done too all 'enough with the excuses it looks bad and overgrown blah blah blah'. Sure my hair looks great now but that uncomfortable-as-hell experience with the hairdresser absolutely fuckin' sucked!"

Kukui leaned back in his chair and snickered to himself. "You're saying this like it's a bad thing Guzma! They did you a favour!"

"I could've done all that crap myself!"

"I think the both of us know that you wouldn't have. You would've gladly sat in nothin' but that old hoodie, those track pants and the same two shirts for the next couple years if you could've, yeah!"

"Ha! Rich coming from Mr Same Lab Coat and Pants every damn day!"

"Yeah, but that's a work uniform Guzma. I don't wear the same thing every day, cousin! You've got no leg to stand on with this one!"

Guzma grumbled and looked away, "whatever… But fuck, I used to run a gang and here I am lookin' like I run a damn day care! Not to mention I ended up spendin' all my recreational budget for the week! 20,000P gone in one afternoon! Like what the hell!"

The Professor only laughed in response. "You could've just told them no!"

Guzma then looked at him like he was insane and replied, "you didn't see the way they looked at me though! They were so damn enthusiastic and excited and I was gonna break their tiny lil' hearts if I said no! I swear they've got a hold on my soul or some shit…"

Kukui just smiled and shook his head. "I'm never going to get over how much they've grown on you."

He then ran a hand through his freshly cut hair and sighed, "me neither…"

"Here, lemme see what you got. Surely for 20,000P you picked up somethin' nice, yeah?"

"I guess…" Guzma then handed his roommate each of the bags and folded his arms awkwardly. Inside were a pair of black jeans, track pants, a variety of coloured hoodies, a new pair of sneakers and a number of new tees and buttoned up shirts; some plain and others patterned.

"Ok now I have no idea why you're complaining; you really needed this Guzma. Everything they helped you pick looks great!"

He just shrugged in response. "Yeah is see what'cha mean… I'm honestly just bitching for the sake of it at this point. Anyway, I didn't wake ya up to show you my new shit. I actually wanted to ask if Yume's goggles came in yet."

"Oh yeah! Well if my memory is correct then they should be at the post office for pick up right now, but they're probably closed. I gotta go grab some groceries tomorrow anyway, so how about you come help me after work and we can pick them up while we're out?" suggested Kukui.

"Sure, damn good timing as well… I was gonna do some lessons on how the weather affects battle in a couple days and I didn't want sand or hail gettin' in her eyes. That could only turn out bad; girl doesn't need another reason to beat herself down for somethin' she can't help," he then scratched his undercut and sat down on the Professor's desk, "I really hope she likes the surprise… Her parents were real damn stoked when I offered it a while back after all."

"Are you kidding? This'll probably mean a lot to her! I mean, it doesn't fix her sight but at least now she can participate without risking damaging her eyes further, yeah!" Kukui then began to neaten the notes on his desk before glancing at his roommate and saying, "you know I'm really proud that you even considered doing that for her…"

Guzma gave a small smile, closed his eyes and shrugged. "You don't have to be, I'd do that for any of 'em; ain't none of my kids gonna miss out or suffer if I've got anythin' to say about it candlenut."

"I'm glad to hear that y'know." The Professor then began to organize the notes and workbooks on his desk, only to notice a reminder taped to the computer screen. "Oh! Guzma I forgot to ask earlier, when are you free next?"

He opened an eye and looked down at Kukui. "Uh… Two days after work I think? Why?"

"Two reasons: First up I wanna examine the moves your team has! I'm still pretty stoked after that battle we had a little while back, I'll admit that bug type teams are normally a synch for me, but you really gave me a run for my money! I just have to examine your Pokémon!" he exclaimed.

Guzma gave him a sly smirk. "So they blew you away even though I lost, huh? You should'a expected nothin' less from my Pokémon! But yeah sure you can look 'em over and stuff, but I ain't hittin' you with any of their moves. Last thing I need is to end up in jail for accidentally murdering your ass!"

Kukui chuckled. "That's understandable. But hey, after that can you come out to Ten Carat Hill with me? Specifically around midnight?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Why? What's up?"

"Well, there's been some strange sightings out there lately, something about a creature flying through the sky-"

"Ok imma just stop you right there," Guzma quickly interrupted, "if this has anything to do with that Ultra Beast crap then you can count me right out. I'm done with all that, ya hear? Besides if one of those freaks really was over there they would've attacked the damn house by now! I told you, I'm a freak magnet now!"

"Woah woah back up a little! Hear me out! I was going to say that because of that Burnet wanted to go out and gather some data in a few nights. With those sightings though I don't want her going alone so I was gonna go with her, but I was thinking of having you tag along for a little extra muscle. You'd be doing me a huge favour and you'd get to meet my wife! How's that sound to you?" proposed Kukui.

His roommate appeared to think to himself for a moment. "Ok then, but you gotta do somethin' for me."

"Shoot."

"Fix your fuckin' house! Or at least help me do it! There's holes in the walls everywhere! The cold-ass sea breeze keeps getting' in all over the place and it's annoying as hell!"

"Do I seriously have to remind you of the state of the last two places you lived?"

"Ain't nothin' to remind me of 'cuz the outer walls had no holes in them! Sure there was a broken window here or there but at least it wasn't drafty as fuck! This is why you don't be stupid and let Pokémon set their moves off inside the house Candlenut!"

"Ok ok I get it! Deal."

Guzma stood up and stretched. "Cool. Anyway you want anythin' else from me? 'Cuz I gotta go do some prep for the week and make a call."

Kukui leaned back in his chair and folded his arms as Rockruff leapt from his lap. He looked up at Guzma with a serious expression. "So you're finally making that call?"

The taller man cringed and looked away. "No… I ain't callin' Plumes tonight. Hala's the one I'm gonna speak to."

"Why?" he asked curiously.

Guzma hunched over and scratched his undercut awkwardly. "Thought I should let the old man know where I'm at and stuff… I mean, he's one of the only people out there who actually gives half a shit. That and I haven't talked to him in weeks, if there's any time to fill him in it's now."

"He'd be proud of you Guzma… But seriously, you need to call Plumeria," Kukui sternly reminded.

He only received a shrug in return.

"The longer you leave this, the higher the chance of it being too late."

Guzma exhaled sharply and ran a hand through his hair. "Tomorrow. Tomorrow night I'll give her a call once we pick the goggles up. I just…" Guzma sighed, "I don't wanna be yelled at tonight. If you see me slackin' off or some shit give me a kick up the ass and I'll do it."

Kukui gave a satisfied smile. "Good. This time I'm not letting you off. Tomorrow it is."

His roommate paused mid-stride. Turning back, Guzma nodded, then said, "a'ight then… I'll see ya a little later…" before turning and slowly heading up the stairs.


	22. Chapter 22: Courtesy Call

A gentle breeze flowed over Melemele Island as the sun began to drift lower in the sky. Route 1 was peaceful at this hour as Guzma and Kukui leisurely headed towards the path to the beachside laboratory with a number of paper bags in hand. They were happy to walk in silence as Guzma reminisced about the day to himself. He felt as though new life was breathed into him when he came into work with a fresh new outfit; despite keeping his classic jacket on, he wore a new light purple t-shirt, black jeans, a fresh pair of white shoes and gold aviators. How upbeat he was seemed to rub off onto his students as well, with many of them far more engaged in what would normally be an average theory lesson, not to mention laughing much more often than usual. Ultimately, it had been a fun and productive day.

However, a few things troubled Guzma's mind. Firstly he had to remember to pick up Yume's prescription goggles with Kukui; they now sat in a box inside one of the bags he carried. Inside he hoped she would appreciate the surprise, now this way she would never have to sit out again.

Secondly, he had to make a phone call. Not just any phone call either, one that he'd been dreading for months now. There was no way he wasn't going to be yelled at; he knew that for a fact. Honestly, after the shit he pulled, he deserved it. Plumeria probably hated his guts by now and had every right in the entire world to take it out on him. But he didn't just want to be her punching bag for the afternoon; there were a few things he wanted to say to her. The issue was how to say them and not sound idiotic after three months of nothing.

'Hey Plumes-' wait, no. Scratch that, she would get upset if he started with that. 'Hey Plumeria, I know you're pissed off and all that but I did really miss you and I care about you a lot even though it might've looked like I don't.' Oh come on… That just sounds stupid and forced and _redundant_. Seriously Guzma, what the _hell_ is wrong with you?! You absolute moron, nothing you could say would get her to forgive you. Honestly, she _shouldn't_ , so step up your damn game and actually think of something at least kinda good to say! Or y'know, get a little help? Dumbass.

Guzma glanced to his right to see Kukui calmly walking beside him. He swallowed before speaking up, trying to hide the nervousness seeping into his voice, "hey Candlenut?"

The Professor looked at him with a smile. "Hmm? What's up, cousin?"

Guzma directed his gaze towards the ground. "I… Need a little advice… You know that call I gotta make? I ain't sure what I should say, at least at the start…"

Kukui thought to himself for a moment. "Well… That is somethin' you should really try and work out on your own… But I guess maybe to start out you should say something like-"

"GUZMA!" The two men flinched, stopped suddenly in their tracks and turned around towards the source of the voice. Guzma froze, staring wide-eyed at the sight of the furious looking young woman storming towards them.

Kukui cringed slightly and shot his roommate an empathetic look before stepping back slightly.

Plumeria approached the taller man in a downright hostile manner and furiously yelled, "where the HELL have you been?! Do you have _any fucking idea_ how worried I was about you?! How could you just leave like that you _stupid fucking ASSHOLE?!_ _How DARE you!"_ The young woman gritted her teeth, clenched her fists by her sides and raised one of them in frustration. The look that flashed across Guzma's face caused her to pause before shoving her hand to her side with a, "hmmph!"

Guzma just stared directly into her golden eyes as the grocery bags slipped from his fingers.

Plumeria waited a few moments before shouting in frustration, "what?! Are you just gonna stare at me like a dumbass or are ya gonna say something?! It's a bit unlike you not to open your stupid fucking mouth!"

Kukui then put his hands up and interrupted, causing Plumeria to shoot him a glare, "ok, I can see that this is a personal issue. I'm gonna leave the two of you alone…" The look in Guzma's eyes screamed _'please don't go'._ The Professor shook his head apologetically, released his Midday Lycanroc, handed it the bags his roommate dropped and quickly continued down the path. Sadly, there was absolutely nothing he could do to help and he didn't want to intrude on their personal affairs. He had warned Guzma over and over again that something like this would happen; now he had to bear the consequences.

Guzma stood there in front of his former admin, a deafening silence surrounded them. He then broke eye contact, took a deep breath and started, "…Plumes-"

She then quickly cut in, "don't you _'Plumes'_ me! Not after what you did! It's been three months since I've heard a single _thing_ from you! _THREE FUCKING MONTHS GUZMA!"_

He slowly hunched over, shoved his hands into his pockets and looked anywhere but at her. He couldn't think of anything to say, after all, there was no good excuse for his actions.

Plumeria quickly glanced around the area before meeting his eyes again with her piercing glare. "You're coming with me _, right now_ ," she sharply demanded through gritted teeth.

The young man nodded and followed her back down Route 1 to a familiar path leading into the rainforest. Plumeria avoided looking back at him, seething to herself as she walked. Guzma drifted along behind her; his head felt numb and his stomach was tight.

The pair walked until they reached a clearing with a park bench to their right, the young woman then stopped and turned to face him. Her voice was low and stern as she said, "I want a damn explanation from you Guzma, because right now I have no idea what the hell to think!"

He slowly inhaled, a million things he could say buzzing through his head, all of them amounting to just white noise. Throwing all of the crap he rehearsed throughout the day aside, he opened his mouth slightly to speak.

However, Plumeria then began to continue, shaking her head in disbelief, "what the hell were you _thinking_ … Just up and leaving us after everything we went through!"

Guzma hunched over more.

"After all that bullshit with the Aether Foundation! After going MISSING through a portal to _another fucking dimension!"_

Guzma clenched his teeth.

Her voice began to sound pained as she yelled, "I had to put all my faith in two children to drag your ass back from wherever the fuck because all the grunts were in a damn panic after what happened at Aether!"

Guzma screwed his eyes shut, shaking his head.

"And then after all that's over what the fuck do you do?! DISBAND Team Skull, pack your shit and leave without a _single fucking word to me!"_

Guzma gripped at his hair tightly.

 _"_ _What the fuck were you thinking Guzma?!_ What the hell-"

 _"_ _I GET IT! I FUCKING GET IT! I'M A STUPID FUCKING IDIOT THAT NEVER THINKS THINGS THROUGH AND WHEN SHIT HITS THE FAN I RUN AWAY FROM THE CONSQUENCES BECAUSE I'M A DAMN COWARD! I KNOW THAT PLUMERIA! I'M SORRY! I'M FUCKING SORRY OK?!"_ exploded Guzma before laying a number of punches into the tree beside him. Plumeria stared at him with wide eyes as he slowly lowered his hand from the tree and leaned his shoulder on it, visibly shaking. "Guzma, _what's wrong with you…_ I… I'm stupid piece of shit person, a piece of shit boss and a piece of shit friend… I'm sorry…"

After about a minute of silence Plumeria swallowed, adjusted her bandana and asked with a quieter tone, "why did you run away? Actually, why did you even think it was a good idea to follow Lusamine through that portal in the first place…?"

"I don't know… I just did what she told me to."

Her hostile glare returned for a moment as she snapped, "if Lusamine told you to jump off a cliff, would you?"

Guzma glanced towards the ground, exhaled, and admitted in a quiet mumble, "looking back on all that, I just might've…"

Plumeria's eyes widened, she bit her lip and gave him an apologetic look, knowing full well the implications of what she just asked.

"As for why I ran away…" -Guzma took a deep breath and closed his eyes- "I was ashamed of what I did… When I ran through that portal the last thing I was thinkin' of was anyone in Team Skull. Even though back then I kept tryin' to tell myself that catchin' the Ultra Beasts and using them to put Team Skull on the map was the reason I was doin' it, it wasn't… For a couple seconds it even flashed through my mind that gettin' stuck in that freaky dimension was a real possibility, but I didn't care, it was all for her… I chose to abandon all of you for her and it's up there as one of the biggest fuckin' mistakes I've ever made in my life…

He ran a hand through his hair, opened his eyes and met Plumeria's gaze. "After I was saved I couldn't bring myself to face y'all knowin' that… I didn't deserve Team Skull; all the grunts and you, _especially_ you, deserved better than me… All I did was drag y'all down into my little fantasy world and fucked your lives up for good…" a sad little smirk flashed over Guzma's face, "destruction in human form is a fuckin' accurate title I tell ya…"

She then swiftly interrupted, "stop spoutin' bullshit Guzma! You already know that's not true! Most of their lives were already messed up, I know it was a gang and all but despite that you gave them people they could count on, somethin' to live for, a _family!_ "

"And then I abandoned them."

"Yeah. Ya did. But despite that they still care about you! You're important to every single one of the grunts!"

Guzma growled, "tch… You know I hate being lied to, Plumeria."

His former admin glared back. "I ain't lying! When you disappeared through that portal all the grunts were in a damn panic, so much so that a bunch of 'em even tried to confront Moon and Lillie because they knew a way to get you home!"

Guzma's stared at her, shocked.

"Took them gettin' their asses whooped and a talkin' to from me to get 'em to back down… And then when they got home, you should've heard them… 'The Boss is fearless, he'll be ok, I know it!' 'Our boy Guzma is strong; he'll come back in no time, just watch!' 'He's gonna show those ultra freaks not to mess with Team Skull!'

"Even now there's still a bunch of grunts living in Po Town waiting for you to come back! They insist you didn't abandon them, that Team Skull is coming back! They wonder where you are, they quote you, they reminisce about old times! So Guzma, you have absolutely NO right to say they don't give a shit about you!"

Guzma screwed his eyes shut and shook his head. His voice cracked a little as he asked, "why…?"

"What…?"

He looked back up at her with tears in his eyes. "Why the fuck do they even remotely give a crap about me…? I treated them like shit! I screamed at them, threw shit everywhere, punished them… I broke one grunt's nose! They _feared_ me Plumes! They shouldn't care about me; so I don't understand why the fucking fuck they do?! How did I manipulate a bunch of teens into liking me?! Is that a damn skill of mine or somethin'?!"

"Because that wasn't the norm Guzma! You were good to them! You treated most of them like friends when gang shit wasn't involved! Half of them were _homeless_ for fucks sake and you gave them a roof over their heads! So many of them were cast aside by society, discriminated against, had problems or were abused and YOU gave them the home they needed! And no they didn't fear you! Well, they were afraid of pissing you off, but not of you as a person! Sure, you're a scary guy, but they weren't afraid of you because they knew you could always rely on you…" Plumeria then went quiet for a moment, "I… I thought I could rely on you…"

"I… I…" Guzma trailed off, blinked away tears and straightened himself off of the tree.

Her breath began to hitch. "…When you disappeared I wanted to come after you, but I couldn't… I had to keep almost seventy teenagers under control by myself… I had to put all my faith in _two little girls_ while you were in another dimension for fucks sake… I didn't sleep… I laid awake at night thinking of how likely it was that you were fucking _dead_ Guzma… That my best friend was _gone_ and I'd never know what really happened to him… That… That I would never get to say how much you mean to me… And that is why it cut so fucking deep when you didn't even talk to me when you came back… You just _left_ …" -she began to choke up- "you just left and… And…" Plumeria covered her eyes as she broke down crying.

"Plumes…" Guzma slowly reached for her.

She then suddenly pointed to him and snapped, "and don't you DARE say ANYTHING about me crying! I have EVERY RIGHT to cry!"

He flinched back and quietly said, "I wasn't going to…"

Plumeria wiped her eyes and tried to compose herself, but only ended up crying harder.

Guzma then slowly took a few steps towards her and gently placed his hands on her arms. Seeing as she didn't flinch away he carefully pulled her towards him, sliding his arms around her.

She pressed her head into his chest, shaking and sobbing. Plumeria felt her friend tighten his hold on her and lean down to rest his head on her shoulder. She heard him begin to quietly sniffle as he shook. "Three months… Three months of nothing… You didn't even read anything I sent to you…"

His breath hitched as he held her closer. "I-I know… I'm going to… I'm sorry Plumes… For everything… I'm a fuckin' coward… I should've called… I'm so, so fucking sorry…"

Plumeria then slowly returned the embrace. "…You really are a prime idiot Guzma..."

The two of them remained like that for a while, unwilling to let each other go. The two of them soon became quiet as they he'd each other. Plumeria then blinked a little as she opened her eyes, noticing the pattern on his jacket's shoulder, the one that she spent days embroidering by hand so many years ago. She gave a small smile and commented, "still got that jacket on, huh…"

Guzma wiped his eyes and said, "heh… Yeah… You know I love it…"

Plumeria then deeply inhaled and exhaled before quietly asking, "Guzma…? Can we talk…? No more angry yelling… I just wanna talk a little more…" She sounded burnt out, her voice small and raspy.

"Yeah… Yeah of course," he agreed before they pulled away from each other and sat down on the bench beside them.

Before she could begin, however, Plumeria noticed him start to rub his right hand. "Hey, gimmie your hand." Guzma obliged, his knuckles were bleeding, scratched up and slightly splintered after punching the tree. "Oh Guzma…" She then took a packet of disinfectant wipes from her pocket.

He winced in pain as she began to clean his hand. "Ow… Damn you still keep those on ya?"

"You ain't a stranger to beatin' yourself up, figuratively and literally…"

"I haven't hurt myself in months… Intentionally at least…"

"That's great," she smiled a little.

"I've been tryin' to get better with my anger and shit… That's a big part of it, so I'm doin' it less…" admitted Guzma.

"I noticed."

He raised an eyebrow. "Noticed what?"

She looked up at him after returning his hand. "It took one hell of a tongue lashin' from me to get you to blow up… I thought you were gonna start with the bullshit the second I found you. I even rehearsed giving you a sharp boot up the ass in my head before I came here, I thought you'd keep trying to justify what you did over and over, but you just stared at me instead… Honestly, that pissed me off more; I prepped for a fuckin' fight not a surrender…"

Guzma rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and looked away. "Well I ain't got any excuse for the way I acted, other than me being an idiot… An' even then that's not really an excuse… Speakin' of no excuses, I'm gonna read everything you sent to me tonight. I promise... Funny thing; I was actually gonna call you tonight, no bullshit…"

Plumeria smirked with amusement. "This is good timing then."

"Yeah, fuckin' great…" he agreed reluctantly. He then leaned back in his seat and asked, "so… How've things been?"

"Hard."

Guzma sighed to himself before speaking, "I would ask ya 'how so?' but I can already take a pretty good guess…"

Plumeria adjusted her bandana and sat up straighter beside him, looking at the forest ahead of her. "Yeah, sortin' out work and living situations for a shitton of teens and young adults ain't easy… I'm just glad I didn't have to do it alone, despite you not bein' there…"

"Nanu helped you out?"

"Yeah."

Guzma smiled a little. "Hate to admit it, but despite how much of a fucking downer he is, Nanu's a great guy. Him and Hala are actually the only reason I'm not in jail right now…"

She asked him curiously, "so he pulled some strings with the police?"

"Yep…"

"He did that for a lot of us as well…"

"Sucks that he had to…"

"He _didn't_ have to..."

"He probably shouldn't have to be honest… With me I mean; y'all don't deserve prison… For some reason he didn't think I did either…"

"You can't make up for what you did if you're behind bars, G."

"Heh… Guess not… Not like I've been doin' much to make up for it though…"

Plumeria folded her arms across her chest and tilted her head as she looked at him. "Actually, there is something you can do to make up for it…"

Guzma glanced over at her silently.

"Didn't you hear me when I said there was still a bunch of grunts back in Po Town waitin' for ya?"

He ran a hand over his face in frustration and grumbled, "god dammit… Who?"

She counted on her fingers as she listed the remaining grunts, "Pepper, Spooky, Big, Star, Flutter, Skip… Ace and Sunny are still there too."

Guzma looked at her in disbelief. "You're kidding, right?!"

Plumeria shook her head. "I wish I was."

The former boss put his head in his hands. "Fuckin' hell… Ace and Sunny are still there? Great now I feel even more like shit…"

"They were homeless, not like they have anywhere to go back to."

"Ace is gonna kill me."

"Hmph! Other than Big he's probably the one grunt who actually could."

"Fuck sake…"

Plumeria sighed before telling him, "you need to go and see them."

"And what the hell can I do?"

"Get them to leave Po Town and move on-"

Guzma suddenly interjected and snapped, "and get rid of the only roof over their heads? Plumeria at least half of them don't got no homes other than Po Town!"

Plumeria angrily yelled, "don't fucking cut me off! They can't stay there forever!" She then took a deep breath and lowered her voice, "they won't listen to me, but you… They'll listen to you! You need to help them find another way in life, make things right with them! Help them find jobs, places to stay! …You need to show them that they don't _need_ you Guzma…"

He sat up straight and said with a defeated tone, "alright… I'll go, but not right now, you gotta give me like four weeks or soemthin'…"

"What? Why can't you just go now?" she asked, confused.

"Cuz imma need at least a day to get over there, then maybe a week or somethin' to sort out shit with them. Right now I can't get time off work and the break's in about four weeks."

Her eyes widened. "Wait a second! Work? Holy shit… _You got a_ _ **job**_ _?!"_

His entire face seemed to light up. "Yeah! I did!"

"Ok we definitely gotta work around that, but we'll organize that later... So about your job, where and what are you doing?"

Guzma smirked pridefully. "You're lookin' at Melemele Trainer's School's brand new battle teacher!"

Plumeria paused and chuckled for a moment before asking, "ok ok… No really! Where are you working?"

The smile on her face was infectious to him, he couldn't help but return it as he clarified, "Plumes, I'm a lot of things; but one thing I ain't is a liar. And one thing I _am_ is a teacher."

Plumeria stared at him for a moment before gaping at him in disbelief. "You're serious?! What?!"

"Yeah! Here, check it." He then retrieved his wallet from his pocket, produced his school ID and handed it to her.

She read over it carefully and then looked between it and him in disbelief. She then exclaimed, "holy shit! How the hell did that happen?!"

He grinned, "heh! I ask myself that question every fucking day…"

"No, seriously! This gotta have a story behind it…"

Guzma hunched over and ran a hand through his hair before explaining, "well, um… I found the flier advertising the job by chance actually; it was pinned up in the city hall so I took it and went for the interview because why the fuck not? Worst they could do is turn me down, which is what I thought would fuckin' happen initially… But funnily enough, my old principal was still workin' there! Ol' Miss Kahananui… I guess she was so amused just by me even havin' the gall to show up that she gave me an interview! Next damn day I get a call while I was hungover as fuck saying I got the job!

Plumeria nodded, listening intently.

"I could barely believe it… Apparently she picked my ass up because I got 'a knack for gettin' through to troubled youth'. She was havin' really bad dropout rates or something and I mentioned in the interview that I could help so she hired me… So cuz of that she stuck me in the class that preps kids before they go for their island challenge; the battle class. Oh, I take homeroom for them too but it's all the same to me, that's just fucking around for the morning before we start, doesn't matter too much.

"And the kids Plumes… Fuck, these kids…" he put a hand on his forehead, appearing shocked at himself as he admitted, "I… I adore the shit outta them, not gonna lie… Well most of 'em… A couple can be real assholes sometimes; Amelia can be a stuck-up little goody-two-shoes know it all, really damn annoying when you're trying to teach, and Nathan is out for my fucking blood I swear… I need to work some shit out with that kid, figure out what the fuck goes on inside his head because otherwise someone's gonna get hurt I swear…

"But anyway, enough about him because the rest of 'em… Oh man… Fuck… I hate that I have favourites 'cuz it doesn't feel fair; I give all of 'em a fair chance but honestly I got two stand outs: Jon and Hayley… Hayley is an adorable as hell bug type trainer. Cute kid, real timid but is tryin' her best to be brave. She loves fossils and gems and baking and brings her things in to show me and it's the cutest shit ever! I even helped her catch her Cutiefly after she stood up for me when I was gettin' shit on by some locals… My lil' bug buddy's an amazing girl I tell ya…

"And Jon… Jon is awesome! He talks my ear off about shit I can't understand half the time even though I try my hardest to listen. He's real into tech and stuff, rich boy, lives in a damn mansion built into the side of the cliff! Loves video games, stories and everything to do with Pokémon tech; really good to get advice from when it comes to that… We even got a little thing goin', he comes and chills with me at lunch when no one else does… He's a real anxious kid, lonely too, funny how he gravitated towards the scariest guy in the whole school… Kid even calls me every night just to talk and it never gets boring… Fuck, I'd prob'ly do anything for him… God dammit Guzma! Gettin' attached to a bunch of stupid kids! What the fuck!"

Plumeria covered her mouth as she laughed and exclaimed, "ok now this is sounding VERY familiar!"

"Shut the fuck up! Ugh… Anyway there's also Minnie, sweet girl, bit of a bookworm, real fiery when she gets mad… She actually wants to become a teacher when she's older, apparently she ain't taking any inspiration from me but I hope I'm good enough that she changes her mind. I'm helpin' her and another boy Donnie out on a competition this weekend… Donnie's a smart kid, great artist, real determined sort; shame he's gotta deal with a naughty-ass Pokémon that won't listen to him… He's friends with Keahi and Kavika. Keahi is a handful to say the _least_ ; hyper as fuck, wants to wrestle _everything_ , she's pretty nice but also the sort I really gotta keep an eye on…

"Kavika's quieter, he wants to be a ranger when he's older, he's a bit clumsy and unsure though, got a couple scars… There's Kalino; he's really chill but when push comes to shove a real hard worker, he wants to be the champion one day actually. I don't think the poor kid's that well off though, he looks like he barely sleeps, I've been startin' to slip him berries in the mornin' cuz I don't think he's eating. It's the least I can do for him…

"Who haven't I talked about… Oh yeah! We got Yume, she's the reason I was out with Kukui today, I had to go pick up some goggles for her. She's got some eye troubles and I wanna teach her to not let them get her down. Otherwise she's a strong willed, confident girl, wants to be a Pokémon breeder one day. I hope she gets there… She's friends with Curtis, young boy from Kalos. Plays the drums apparently, I heard from Amelia that he wants to get into music. One thing I couldn't believe though is that he's a legit fucking psychic! Makes things float, can hear thoughts, understands psychic and ghost type Pokémon… Man that's a trip to even think about… Then there's one more student, young girl named Iolana. Little fuckin' smartass… Always gotta put her two cents in somehow. Keeps tryin' to tell me what to do…'Oh you should wear this it looks good on you', says the kid with no fashion sense! God dammit, I still think she's great though; she means well a lot of the time and makes me laugh… So there's that… And that's all my kids…"

He looked back to her, only to see that she had a huge grin on her face. "I did _NOT_ ask you to give me a monologue about your entire class G!"

Guzma's eyes widened and his face became flushed with embarrassment as she began to laugh.

"That is the most _adorable_ thing I have ever heard you ramble about!"

"Shut the hell up! I ain't adorable!"

"Um, yes you are! _Super_ cute!" she teased.

"Fuck off!"

Plumeria continued to laugh as Guzma crossed his arms and grumbled to himself incoherently. She then regained her composure and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I can see you're really proud of them…"

"Yeah, I am…"

Her smile then faded and she returned her hand to her side as a thought came to mind, her tone became more serious as she said, "so… I can see that everything is going ok for you right now… But I have to ask; If things go… wrong… here, are you just going to leave those kids behind to…?

Guzma sharply inhaled; that visibly stung. He thought to himself for a few moments before answering, "no… I know I'm a shit person Plumes… But I want to change… I _will_ change… So no, if things go south I'm not gonna make the same mistake twice…"

Plumeria smiled a little, feeling slightly reassured. "I told you, I'm already seeing the change, Guzma."

He shrugged in response. "I just… Don't wanna be a stupid uptight failure anymore…"

She nodded in agreement. "Mmm… I know that feeling…"

He raised an eyebrow. "Whaddaya mean?"

"Well… A little while after you left I decided to start over as a Pokémon trainer and do it right this time. I spent weeks training up my team and aimed for the Champion's seat. But… It hasn't exactly worked out…"

Guzma gave her a concerned look. "How come?"

Plumeria quickly became frustrated and subconsciously gripped at her pant legs. "I'm strong enough to defeat the Elite Four. I know that. But as of now I've faced the champion _three times_ and lost every single match… I worked so damn hard, my team took out so many Pokémon to get there; yet in the end after all that effort I still couldn't measure up. I failed, like I always do."

Guzma quickly cut in. "You're not a failure! Where the fuck did you fail?! Sure, you lost, but you gave it your damn best and your best was absolutely amazing Plumes!"

She mumbled, "how the hell would you know…"

"Kukui told me about how you faced the Elite Four and the champion, so I watched all your matches. Your poison type team is _literally_ the strongest one I've ever seen. I could fuckin' _feel_ the effort you put in through the damn screen and there's no way I'm just gonna sit here and let ya talk yourself down like that. You're amazing Plumes, you just gotta try again! Hell, I can help you! We should start training together and-"

She then interrupted, "I'm not facing the champion again."

Guzma's tone became serious. "Why the hell not? It's unlike you to just quit at somethin' Plumeria."

"I didn't quit!" she snapped before looking away, "it's just that something else has come up…" Plumeria fidgeted with her hair a little. She now appeared quite distant.

"I know that look, something's bothering you. What's the matter?"

The young woman took a deep breath and faced him. "I… didn't come looking for you just to yell at you, Guzma. There's something I have to tell you."

He went slightly pale, 'I have to tell you something' is NEVER a good sign. "Don't worry Plumes, whatever it is; I will always be there for you. It's ok, you can tell me anything," he anxiously reassured.

Plumeria then looked at him funny. "The fuck? It's nothing bad, Guzma. But thanks anyway."

Guzma cocked an eyebrow. "Then why the hell are you worked up over it?"

"Maybe if you shut up for two seconds I could actually tell you!"

His teeth clinked from snapping his jaw closed so quickly.

She shook her arms for a moment and took a deep breath. "So, you know my Pokétube channel, right?"

"Oh yeah I do! You're still goin' with that huh? The amount of money you spent on makeup and fabric for it I swear…"

"What did I just say about shutting up?"

"Sorry."

"Anyway… It was meant to be just a hobby; I didn't think anything would come from it, but… I got noticed…"

He tilted his head curiously. "What do you mean?"

"You've heard of Pokémon Contests, right?"

"I know of them."

She explained, "well… The lady that runs the Pokémon contests in Hearthome City was looking for makeup artists for the contest scene… And she called me after going through my whole channel. I thought it was a damn prank at first, but she was completely serious… She's willing to give me formal training in cosmetology too."

His eyes were wide. "Holy shit… That's amazing Plumes!"

She ran her fingers through her hair and grinned. "Yeah, it is! So yeah, that's what I came to tell you. In four days I'm moving to the Sinnoh Region!"

Guzma froze for a moment as his heart visibly dropped. He sat there in a stunned silence for a while before stuttering, "wh… what?"

Plumeria furrowed her brow. "What's with that look? You were happy for me two seconds ago!"

"I thought they were gonna start doin' contests or some shit in Alola? Not that you were moving to Sinnoh!" he exclaimed in disbelief.

"No? Where the hell did you pull that idea from?"

He blinked for a moment before hunching over. "I… Uh… I dunno… I just… This is a lot to take in…"

She folded her arms, irritated. "You cut contact with me for three months and now you're sad you don't get to see me?! Hmmph!"

Guzma gritted his teeth, sat up straight and yelled, "I was sad during that too! Fuck sake, we just went over this!" he then ran a hand through his hair and hunched back over, "I thought we'd get to reconnect and shit… And now I don't get to do that…"

"Yes you do! You think I'm just gonna forget about everyone here? If I wanted to do that I wouldn't have trawled the islands looking for your sorry ass… When we're done here I want you to re-add me online and give me your new number. You're my best friend Guzma… I missed you…"

"…I missed you too…"

Plumeria gently started to rub his back and reassured him, "hey… I'm going to come down every now and again to visit. Especially when the contest season is over and things quiet down."

Guzma nodded and then weakly shrugged. "Heck, I might come up there myself. You can show me around that cold-ass region…"

She smiled at him warmly. "I'd love that."

He returned the smile and asked, "you thinking of entering the contests yourself?"

"I'm considering giving them a shot."

Guzma gave a cocky smirk. "Heh, then make sure to give 'em the ol' Salazzle dazzle Plumes! You're gonna blow everyone away! Show all of 'em exactly what Alola's best are made of, ok?"

Plumeria grinned with determination. "You can bet on it!" Her eyes then widened and she quickly asked, "wait, what's the time?"

He checked his watch. "5pm."

"Ah shit… Hey, how 'bout we go chill in the city a little more? I gotta go in about 45 minutes."

"Aww… Why so soon?"

She stood up and stretched for a moment. "I gotta catch the ferry and I don't wanna get home too late."

Guzma followed suit. "Damn… I'd come with but I got shit to do. Speakin' of home though, how's your mom and the twins?"

"They're doing alright; lookin' at retaking their island challenge. I'm real proud of them for that actually." She smiled to herself as she headed back towards the main road with him. "So… Did you make up with the Professor or something? I thought you hated him, but you were helping him out when I found ya."

"Oh yeah, I did... I had to work with him for two weeks, our little partnership went from fuckin' terrible to pretty good so we decided to catch up a little. Then Kukui found out I was living in an old run down house…" He looked away awkwardly.

Plumeria facepalmed. "You're kidding, right?"

"…No."

She sighed deeply and said, "despite how awful that must've been, I'm not surprised at all."

Guzma chuckled a little. "You know me too well… Anyway, because of that Kukui's lettin' me stay with him. I sleep up in his loft."

"That was really nice of him."

"Yeah… Kind of a shame it took me years to remember how great a friend he is…"

"Well, things are different now, I'm glad you've been able to see that, Guzma."

The two of them continued down the path, Guzma's eyes widened when he felt Plumeria gently take hold of his hand. He quickly glanced over to see her smiling at him, a grin then spread across his face as he looked away and squeezed her hand in return.

The pair spent the last of their time together in Hau'oli City as the sun began to set. Catching up further and reminiscing over old times, before and during Team Skull. Time absolutely flew by for Guzma, it felt as though only five minutes had passed before it was time for Plumeria to depart.

Guzma rubbed the back of his neck as they stood on the docks, clearly displeased by the sight of the ferry. He then looked down at Plumeria and decided to break the silence, "it was, um, great seeing you again, despite how it started out… I really did miss you so much… I'm so fucking stupid for not talking to you sooner…"

Plumeria looked up at him and reassured, "well, that's gonna change now, isn't it? Even though I'm not gonna be here much in person, I'm always just a text away… And it was good seeing you too Guzma, is should've guessed you were on Melemele sooner." She then anxiously glanced at the clock situated on the ferry terminal. "I have to go now…"

Guzma swallowed and nodded.

"I'll seeya later, G."

"I'll talk to ya soon, Plumes."

Plumeria then smirked and held her hand out for a fist bump as Guzma held his arms out for a hug. She stared at him, very surprised as Guzma's cheeks went pink. He then hunched over, rubbed the back of his head and awkwardly held his fist out. Instead, Plumeria hugged him tightly, he returned it warmly. The young woman quietly stated, "this is new…"

"Uh… Yeah…"

"I could get used to this…"

"I could too…"

They held the hug for a few more seconds before Plumeria pulled away, smiled up at him and said, "right then, I'm outta here." She turned to leave before quickly stopping herself and exclaiming, "oh wait! God I'm a dummy, I almost forgot!"

Guzma raised an eyebrow and asked, "what's up?"

"I have something for you," she then reached into her pocket and placed his old chain into his hand, skull logo reflecting the sunset, "you dropped this."

The young man frowned. "I did that on purpose; I don't want it."

"You can't keep running from everything, Guzma… Team Skull was a part of you; it probably always will be… Maybe it could serve as a reminder to go visit those grunts, hmm? Anyway, do what you want with it, I'm out…" She gave a small waved, turned and entered the boarding gate as Guzma watched, still holding the chain.

He looked down at it, closed his eyes, took a deep breath and pocketed it. He then leaned forward on the railing and watched Plumeria board the ferry. Guzma stood there a little while as the boat prepared to depart before a familiar voice caused him to flinch.

"Hey there, cousin!" Kukui leaned on the railing beside him. "How're you doin'? Is everything alright?"

"Yeah… Everything went ok."

The Professor then looked at the now slowly departing boat. "That's good to hear… That's her, yeah?"

"Yeah…"

"What's with that look on your face?"

He grumbled, "the hell do you think? She's leaving..."

Kukui then smiled at him and said, "Guzma, when you're saying goodbye to someone you love, you gotta show them one last smile, yeah!"

Guzma blinked at him for a moment before looking back at the boat. He noticed Plumeria standing by the railing, watching him. He gave her a warm smile and waved as she departed. Plumeria did the same in return.


	23. Chapter 23: Self-Reflection

The ocean waves quietly lapped against the sand, unseen on this warm, dark night. Guzma blinked wearily and unzipped his dark purple jacket to let the breeze cool him off, consequently revealing the Golisopod patterned shirt underneath. He then watched as his Ariados appeared to converse with a Tauros under the light of Kukui's beachside shack. Tonight they were heading out to Ten Carat Hill with Professor Burnet in hopes of gathering data on the ultra wormholes; they were almost ready to leave aside from the fact that Burnet hadn't arrived yet. He watched as Kukui hooked a trailer to the bovine Pokémon and couldn't help think of the million other things he'd rather be doing right now other than risking encountering and battling an ultra beast. For example, sleeping; the one thing he was actually getting good at doing these days, especially considering how early he had to get up most mornings.

Instead, he settled on doing something else, pulling out his phone and sending a text off to his best friend, Plumeria.

 _I hate this_

Surprisingly a message came back almost immediately. _Hate what G?_

 _That I gotta go out to 10 carat beast hole in the middle of the fucking night with candlenut and his wife. Also shouldnt u be in bed plumes?_

 _I should be, but why would you even text me if you thought I was asleep?_

 _I dunno, I was just gonna vent to ya like a lil pussy ass bitch about how much this sucks_

 _Why does it suck?_

 _Guzma inhaled deeply to try and calm his nerves. Because even if a monster doesnt show up I hafta meet kukuis wife_

 _Oh come on, that can't be too bad._

 _Shes gonna hate me_

 _And how do you know that?_

 _HA do I really hafta say?_

 _Ffs Guzma, just be nice to her and she shouldn't hate you._

 _I hurt Lillie though and ive seen the picture on kukuis desk. They both love that girl a lot and I havent seen her to say sorry yet. She holds a grudge I know it_

 _I'm sure the Professor had a talk with her before this G. Stop overthinking things and try to enjoy yourself, show her you mean them no harm and don't even bring up the Lillie thing. That'll just make it awkward for you both._

 _So what should I do?_

 _I already told you, you know exactly what to do. Stop being a baby and man the hell up, you ain't no Wimpod G so stop acting like one._

 _Ok. But what do I do if the beast rumors are true?_

 _Well, you defeated one before didn't you? You can do it again._

 _I froze last time. I blacked tf out I had all those memories of that fucking jellyfish running through my brain I almost got Donnie and his pokemon killed_

 _Whatever this one is, the rumors don't say anything about it looking like a symbiont, you'll be ok G, I believe in you._

 _I have trouble believing in me_

 _Then believe in the me that believes in you._

 _YES! You know I love that show_

 _:P You'll be fine._

 _Thanks. Hey gtg cars pulling up._

 _*Car's_

 _tUmUt_

 _The fuck does that mean?_

 _Im flipping u off. Cant u tell?_

 _Lol sure. Love you too G :heart:_

 _... :heart:_

Guzma couldn't tell if the pickup truck pulling up or the " _love you too G_ ", no matter how sarcastic, was causing his heart to race. He didn't have much time to think about it, however, as Burnet then stepped out of the truck.

The man stood up straight and watched the professors embrace each other, Burnet shared a soft kiss with her husband before Kukui pulled back and asked quietly, "did you have any trouble getting here?"

She smiled up at him. "Not at all honey, thank you for asking."

"Let's get the rest of the equipment into the trailer then, yeah my darling?"

She chuckled dreamily as Kukui began unloading some of the smaller boxes from her truck, specifically avoiding a huge machine reminiscent of a satellite dish. Guzma winced and looked away from the two of them during that display, they were really… mushy when they were together. It made him feel like some kind of voyeur into their private affairs, like a dark stain on their happy life. He then slowly headed over to help Kukui unload the truck, hunching over awkwardly. The last thing the young man wanted to do was scare Burnet, he even decided to forgo his favourite Team Skull jacket to minimize that risk.

However, the young women then approached Guzma, held her hand out with a smile and introduced herself, "hi there! I'm Burnet. I'm guessing you're coming along to help me with my research, right?"

Guzma blinked, stunned by her kind reaction. He shook her hand and responded, "uhh, yeah I am. It's nice to meet you too… Picked a good night for this, huh?"

Burnet grinned at him with delight. "It's lovely out here right now! I've always loved Alola's tropical weather; the full moon is just so beautiful too."

"Yeah, it is…" He scratched his undercut and moved past her to assist Kukui, exhaling deeply. That wasn't so bad, she seemed completely fine with him, maybe Plumeria was right? He made a mental note to try not to over think everything so much.

But, just as he began to unload the trailer Burnet approached her husband and asked, "hey, honey? Wasn't Guzma supposed to be here too? I thought he was going to help us tonight."

Guzma, standing barely two meters away from her, almost dropped the box he was holding in disbelief. He cocked an eyebrow at the couple, extremely confused, until Kukui spoke up, "yeah, he's here! You just shook his hand, sweetheart."

Burnet's eyes widened and she covered her mouth ashamed. She turned to Guzma and quickly apologized, "the bleached hair… I should've known! I am so so sorry… I meant no disrespect… You just weren't wearing what I thought you would be…"

The young man tilted his head. "It's, uh, no big deal. Don't worry about it Professor." She then apologized for a second time before taking out and adjusting the settings on a ride pager. Guzma blinked before placing the box he was holding into the trailer. How did she not recognize him? He could understand the kids in his class not knowing who he was, but Kukui's wife? It didn't make sense to him, his face was all over the news on numerous occasions. Did she just never watch TV or read the paper? Or go on social media?

He glanced at her while loading up the boxes, she seemed nervous now. Great, so he did scare her after all. Burnet then swapped ride pagers with Kukui, who summoned a second Tauros, before releasing a Pokémon that Guzma had rarely seen. It was a green transparent squishy thing; he'd seen it while watching international championships but could never remember its name. It was quite exotic looking. She commanded her Reuniclus to lift the large satellite-disc looking machine into the trailer; the psychic type managed the task with ease before it was returned to its ball.

Professor Kukui then climbed upon the Tauros's back and turned to face the two of them. "I'm gonna go ahead and clear a path for you both. Guzma, stay with Burnet and escort her through the cave to the Farthest Hollow ok? Her Pokemon aren't exactly trained for battling."

The young man returned his spider Pokémon and nodded in reply. "Gotcha."

The professor grinned and waved at them before charging off towards the entrance, the Tauros smashing through the boulders blocking the cave easily.

There was an uncomfortable silence as Burnet began to lead the Tauros pulling the trailer towards the cave entrance. Even though she was there, without Kukui present Guzma now felt very alone.

He shoved his hands in his pockets and hunched over further, glancing in her direction occasionally. He tried thinking of some way to break the ice between them other than "hey I'm sorry for helping fuck up the life of the girl you think of like a daughter", that would just be out of place and insecure as _hell_. As they approached the cave he heard Burnet shout, "think fast!" to his right, he then quickly plucked a flashlight from the air while the professor switched on her own.

He began to scan the interior of the cave's walls; they were cold and dank, as always. Just one more place in Alola that never changed no matter how many times he visited over the years. Though, the familiar sight did give him an idea. Guzma turned his head towards his companion and asked awkwardly, "so… Have you ever been to Ten Carat Hill before?"

She shook her head. "No actually, Kukui does come here a lot though. I'm normally stationed on Akala, but I've started to branch out to the other islands after the ultra beast incidents."

Guzma inhaled sharply and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah… Sorry about, y'know, helping cause those…"

Burnet chuckled and then smirked at him. "Well, as much as I don't appreciate the danger they pose to Alola's citizens, these strange occurrences _have_ brought a lot of excitement to my research."

Guzma huffed in amusement. "That's one hella backwards way to say thanks I guess?"

She tapped her lip with her finger and smiled. "I didn't say anything like that."

He smirked and stood up straight. Yeah, she didn't, but he could certainly read subtext. Guzma shined his torch around the cave, illuminating a Sableye clinging to the roof above them. The purple Pokémon appeared to chuckle before scurrying into the shadows. He cringed slightly and spoke up, "did you see the Sableye up there?"

"I sure did!"

"When I was a little kid one of those things ate my favourite net right out of my hands. I used to come in here looking for bug Pokémon, thought they would like how dark and wet it is but there was just a shit ton of Zubat and Digglet. Huge disappointment really. After that this place was only good for camping and shit, mostly cuz the stars are real pretty all the way out here", he then paused and groaned, "ahh shit… I'm rambling about myself again, sorry 'bout that."

The young woman put her hands up in front of her reassuringly. "Oh no no it's ok! It's quite interesting actually, I didn't know you grew up on Melemele… I myself actually grew up in Unova, there were a few similar cave systems, not in a seaside volcano though of course. I grew up in Castellia City though so I never really got the chance to explore them, nor have I been to them now as I my research has nothing to do with them. Actually, speaking of research, I'd like a favour from you. Could I please interview you about your experiences in ultra space?"

Guzma raised an eyebrow and asked, "why me?"

"Well, I already have accounts from Lillie and Moon about what happened and the details of the dimension itself. But I wasn't able to interview the Aether President because she was in the hospital. Other than her, you're the only person I know of who's spent an extended period of time in ultra space and I would be absolutely thrilled to hear your perspective later tonight! If you'd like to that is! You don't have if you don't want to!"

He thought about it for a second before shrugging. "Sure, why the hell not?"

Burnet clapped her hands together excitedly. "Thank you so much! Trust me when I say you're contributing to a very important cause!"

"…Sure…" Guzma then glanced back towards the equipment they were transporting, eager to keep the conversation going. He studies the large complex looking machinery before commenting with a smile, "all this stuff we're hauling looks pretty fancy… Kinda reminds me of Aether. You must be one heck of a great scientist to get your hands on all of this, am I right?"

The young woman blushed and waved her hand, "stop stop! You're too kind! I only just got the funding for all of this recently after the ultra wormholes began appearing…" she then frowned bitterly, "usually my research isn't looked upon fondly by other scientists…"

Guzma tilted his head, "whaaaat? Nah no way, this shit is cool as hell! What, did some crummy old professor with one foot in the grave tell you it's stupid or somethin'?"

Burnet smiled a little and shook her head. "Many of the other professors I've spoken to think I'm insane, actually. That I just spend all my time chasing dreams, literally. That none of my research is useful to anyone, or that it was all just based on legends no one remembers or even just that my inventions were too strange for their liking. Most of my old work was studying a dimension I called the Interdream Zone, described simply it's the space between dreams and reality. It sounds strange but it's very real, I've brought back items from there and even caught numerous Pokémon from that dimension, but still no one respected me for it... But, all of that really paid off when I was asked to study Alola's ultra wormhole phenomenon! Finally a big break!"

Guzma grinned widely, "happy to be of assistance then!"

She chuckled and shook her head in response.

He scanned around the cave with his torch, spotting the exit up ahead. "If it's worth anything, I don't think you're crazy. Even though it's way out of this world all this stuff sounds amazing, I couldn't keep up with any of it to be honest."

Burnet shrugged. "A lot of people wouldn't agree with you for a few reasons actually… You remember how I didn't recognize you earlier?"

"Yeah, that was weird as hell."

"Well, I have a lot of trouble remembering people's faces. Most of the time I pick out Kukui by his clothes; either from seeing his favourite cap, the one with the rainbow on it, or the shirtless lab coat combination…" –she rubbed her upper arm- "I… actually feel really bad whenever I lose him in a crowd… He's my husband you know…" she then looked at Guzma, smiled crookedly and said, "mirrors can be scary, can't they? Sometimes after I work through the night, I look into the mirror and I seem to see a stranger staring back at me. That's pretty funny, right?"

 _O…kay?_ Guzma stared back at her; he had no idea how to respond to that. "Um… I guess…?"

Her head then snapped forward. "Oh! We're at the exit!"

He looked ahead, indeed they were. The two of them led the Tauros towards professor Kukui, who was waiting in the centre of the Farthest Hollow for them. He quickly approached the pair with a smile. "Hey there! Did the wild Pokémon give you three any trouble?

Burnet smiled back at him, "we were just fine honey."

"Woo! That's good. Come on, let's set up."

The Tauros assisting them was unhooked from the trailer before being teleported back home via the ride pager. The three of them unloaded the equipment swiftly, but soon Guzma found himself with nothing to do as Kukui and Burnet took over setting up their machinery. "You two lovebirds need any help?"

Burnet looked up at him. "Thanks but no thanks, my Reuniclus has all the heavy lifting covered. Feel free to look around though! Tonight's probably going to be quite boring, lots of waiting and detecting trace ultra wormhole energy. For now I'm just calibrating it so your own energy output won't interfere with the data…" She went back to fiddling with her machine.

Guzma shrugged. "Aight then, gimmie a call if y'all need any help."

The couple waved to him as he turned and began wandering around Ten Carat Hill. There was the occasional rustling of wild Pokémon in the bushes, as well as the feeling of eyes on him. Although he _could've_ brought out his team and battled with them, they were far too weak to stand even a chance against his Pokémon, it would be nothing short of a massacre. Instead he turned his eyes to the stars above him. Burnet was right; the full moon was beautiful tonight.

As he stared up at the sky an orange light caught his peripheral vision, he rapidly looked at it, only to spot that it was illuminating something at the top of the small hill. Probably just some campers, but it was worth a look. He decided to turn to his left and head up the path, shaking off any wild Pokémon he encountered without a sweat. Hopefully he wouldn't scare whoever's up there away; after all he didn't mean any harm.

Surprisingly as he approached he began to hear a very familiar voice. Guzma's eyes widened, he knew exactly who was there. He smiled with excitement before coming to a realization; now he only felt anger bubbling up in his chest as he stormed towards the tent.

Sitting on the ground in front of him were three of his own students, Nathan, Keahi and Amelia with all of their Pokémon out around them, including a Machop he had never seen before. The group looked up at him, startled when a flashlight was shone on their faces. Keahi's eyes widened when the light was switched off, she jumped to her feet and yelled excitedly, "teacher! Oh my god I didn't think you'd be out here! Hello!" Keahi bounced up and down with a huge grin on her face while Amelia looked up at him perplexed. Nathan glared up at him between taking glances at his DS and stroking his Mareanie.

Guzma forced a smile, subconsciously balling his fists as his eyelid twitched. "I didn't think y'all'd be out here either… It's past midnight, what the hell are you three doing?"

"We're helping Amelia out! Me and Nathan are her BODYGUARDS! Isn't that cool?!" Keahi clapped her hands together enthusiastically as Amelia facepalmed.

The young man glanced around, Nathan seemed mostly engrossed in his DS and Keahi's Makuhita proceeded to try and show the Machop how to eat a large rock. "Pretty crappy bodyguards if you ask me."

Amelia groaned and balled her hands into the sleeves of her sweater. "Well I had to take someone, ok?!" she snapped.

Guzma bit back, "for what?!"

The young girl pointed to her Cleffa, the little pink fairy Pokémon twirled around under the moonlight, seemingly unaware of its surroundings. "Every full moon Cleffa sneaks out of the house to go dance, she's come back injured before and I'm scared a Lycanroc's gonna eat her or something! She always manages to get out of the house somehow and it's so much easier to just go with her so she'll be safe!"

He growled. "Then why the hell didn't you ask me for help?!"

Amelia gave him a disgusted look. "Because that's weird… _Really weird…"_

"Oh for fuck sake… I don't care! Haven't you heard?! There are rumours of a monster around these parts! And if you actually listened to that lesson I gave y'all a couple weeks back you'd know that you _don't go into areas where there's probably an ultra beast lurking around!"_

Amelia stood up and bared her teeth, yelling, "then what else am I supposed to do?! Let Cleffa get hurt?!"

"Anything but this! But this way you're _all_ going to get hurt!"

Keahi slowly backed up into the tent, deciding to wait until all of the yelling blows over.

Nathan, noticing Keahi retreat inside, grumbled to himself and shut his DS as he stood up. Guzma's gaze snapped to him as the young boy spoke, "god you're both insufferable when you fight… But now that you're here sir, we're all safe now huh? You're gonna play the hero and take care of us _defenceless_ kids with your team of insects, right?"

Guzma ground his teeth as he stared Nathan down, what a cocky little shit! "You know what?! Yeah! Yeah I am! I was just doin' that actually! I was guarding the two professors down there from any ultra beasts stupid enough to come by! So yeah! Might as well help you out too!"

Nathan rolled his eyes in response, but before he could say anything else Keahi burst out of the tent. "Oh my god! Teacher! Speaking of those beast things I have something to show you!"

Guzma blinked, taken aback a little by her sudden approach. "Uh… Ok?"

She quickly flicked through the images on her smart phone while talking. "So I was up at Melemele Meadow on the weekend alright? I go up there a lot to pick flowers for my grandma, and while I was up there I saw something _amazing!_ You know that absorption monster you told us about? It was there!"

Guzma sputtered, "wh-WHAT?!"

"Yeah it really was! It was so amazing! I was super scared at first and hid in the flowers but it found me and looked down at me, I thought it was gonna eat me but then guess what, it flexed! It started posing so I got up and I flexed back all grrr!" –she imitated the poses they exchanged- "and then I think it made a happy sound and walked away! Look I even got a picture with it! _It was so amazing!"_ Her eyes shone as she showed her teacher a selfie she took with what was clearly a Buzzwole posing in the background.

Guzma just about had a heart attack. "AND YOU DIDN'T CALL ME?!"

Keahi matched his volume with a smile. "NO! BECAUSE IT WAS FRIENDLY!"

"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!"

Nathan stared wide eyed as the two of them began to have a shouting match, interrupted by Keahi occasionally bursting out with laughter. Amelia got up from her spot and looked at Nathan. "I'm getting a headache." She then picked up her Cleffa and headed down the hill to see what the professors were doing.

"You have no idea what you're dealing with Keahi! It could've easily killed you!" Guzma sternly shouted.

"Yeah but I'm good at making friends! I even made friends with my new Machop! She's so cool too! I can't wait to wrestle with her, it's gonna be so much fun!" she retorted excitedly.

Guzma balked momentarily before screwing his eyes shut and gripping at his hair in frustration. "That's not the same! You could've… ARRGHH! You know what?! Forget it! You wanna get killed by an ultra beast that's on your ass not mine! Just call me next time you see one! Screw all of you! I'm going back down there!" He turned and swiftly stormed back down the hill, Nathan and Keahi could practically see smoke drifting off of his back.

Keahi giggled to herself, sat down beside Nathan and plucked two daisies from the grass. She placed one in her own hair band before fixing one into Nathan's spiky hair. He leant over as she showed him the selfie she took. He smiled at her. "I doubt there's any picture in the world that could beat that one Cammy…"

She squealed and briefly hugged him. "Thank you! Seriously that was one of the most awesome things ever to happen to me, I hope I see it again! I'm gonna name it Buzz Buzz!"

Nathan chuckled a little. "Hehe, cute… You know… All this gives me an idea…"

"Ooo for what? A new art project? Oh my god I could draw the blazing Camelia with that beast! That would be so cool!"

Nathan smirked. "It really would be, but that's not it…"

"Well then, what is it?"

Nathan directed his gaze up to the sky, just in time to see something black out the moon for just less than a second. "To put it short, Cammy, I know what he's afraid of."


	24. Chp 24: Gold Chains & Gold Trophies

The sun began to peek through the clouds, illuminating the once overcast Route 1 on a surprisingly busy Saturday morning. Though this came as no surprise to Guzma, as today the Melemele multi-battle tournament was commencing in Iki Town. The young man slipped his yellow sunglasses over his eyes, partially to block out the sun as well as mask the stares of the occasional parent travelling up the same route. He tied his new black jacket around his waist; the humidity was getting to him just a little today. Guzma then looked around him, only to spot that the two students he was escorting were starting to lag behind.

"Hey come on hurry up, we're almost there! Don't tell me you're gonna drop dead before the battles even start!" he exclaimed, prompting the two of them to catch up.

Minnie huffed as she returned to his side, holding her sunhat so it didn't fly off with the wind. "Teacher, you travel about two metres or something with every stride, you should be the one to slow down!" she remarked, irritated.

Donnie nodded in agreement, gripping the umbrella in his hand tighter as the wind picked up. "Um… sir? Are you sure it's not gonna rain today? I think there's a storm coming…"

Guzma looked down at him, "It probably will, but that doesn't matter. It'll just boost anyone with water types and get everyone else wet. You're not afraid of a little water are ya?"

Donnie shook his head, still clearly nervous. Minnie held her travel handbag close with a frustrated look on her face as Guzma continued walking.

The young man glanced down at them. "Hey, stop givin' me those faces you two, you're gonna do great," he reassured with a smile, "you've worked so hard over the last couple weeks, so don't go in thinkin' you're gonna fail off the bat, cuz if you do you've doomed yourselves already."

Minnie took a deep breath before looking up at her teacher. "Ok… Iki Town just brings back bad memories; the amount of tournaments I've lost I swear… I really just don't want to let you two down…"

Donnie moved over to her and patted on her the back. "Let's just do our best ok? We've been getting really good lately and Perry's actually been listening to me. We really could have a shot at this!"

Guzma grinned. "That's the spirit! Go for gold kids, it's in your reach! I know you'll make ya boi proud."

Minnie snickered, "did you seriously refer to yourself in the third person again?"

He rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, why do you never let that slide? You're no fun."

The young girl folded her arms. "It sounds stupid, that's why."

"No it don't."

"Yes it does!"

Guzma groaned in frustration. "Holy crap kid it doesn't matter… Why do ya gotta focus on stupid small shit? Is this why people always wanna beat your ass?"

Minnie scowled at him before giving a resigned look. "Probably…"

He cringed a little at himself. "Ok that was uncalled for… I'm sorry Minnie. Just work on it, ok?"

"As long as you work on your foul mouth."

"Deal. At least around y'all anyway…"

Donnie then quietly spoke up, "so, uh… How does the actual tournament work? Is there anything we should remember?"

Guzma scratched his undercut, thinking. "Not really… You sign up at the desk and register what Pokémon you'll be using and their items. Then you get a number each and will be randomly paired up with other battlers. You win; you move up to the next round. You lose; you get knocked out of the tournament. But, since this is the baby league everyone gets just one Pokémon so the matches will be fast" –he then gave a smug smirk - "let's be honest, Melemele isn't exactly the big leagues, never has been and never will be. Everyone here will probably either be little kids or amateurs just lookin' for a good time so you'll beat them down pretty easily. Sound good?"

The young boy nodded. "Ok, yeah, that sounds good." He smiled, reassured slightly.

It didn't take long before the trio ascended up the first set of stairs into Iki Town's residential area. Minnie moved closer to her teacher; she stood out as a regular contestant at these events and she knew it. There was nothing she could do about it, so she pulled her hat further down over her bright red hair and hoped silently that no one would recognize her as the resident loser. In contrast, Donnie's gaze shifted all over the town as they walked, enamoured by the traditional Alolan architecture and the warm colours. He made a mental note to return to Iki Town on a less crowded day and paint the scenery.

Between the two of them was Guzma, leading the way through the crowd. He knew very well that he stood out around these parts, but just stood taller in response; if they had a problem with him being there they could say it to his face or keep quiet. He surveyed the crowd curiously, wincing slightly after recognizing a fair few people that grew up alongside him on Melemele, some of them even had children of their own already! Seeing them made Guzma feel quite old, yet relieved, he at least managed to dodge that bullet.

The young man looked down at his students and requested, "hey, keep close, ok? If y'all want to look at anything while we're here then lemme know. Last thing we need is to get split up and miss signing up cuz I was running around like a dumbass lookin' for you."

Minnie mumbled to herself, "you don't have to worry about that, teacher…" as Donnie snapped himself out of his daze and quickly caught up. The trio ascended the second set of stairs up to the arena and Guzma headed towards the registration desk. He glanced at the wooden pedestal that functioned as the arena, god that brought back memories; the amount of times Hala kicked his ass at both wrestling and battling on that stage… Wait up, speaking of Hala didn't he-

Guzma's train of thought was abruptly cut off by a booming voice shouting, "Guzma, my boy! Is that you?!" The young man stopped dead in his tracks and turned to see none other than the Kahuna approaching him with a big grin spread across his face. Before he could get a single word out Hala wrapped Guzma in a tight embrace, squeezing the air from his lungs. He briefly hugged the old man back as he choked out, "Master Hala… Can't breathe…"

The Kahuna let out a hearty laugh and released him with a pat on the back. "Now this is a pleasant surprise! How are you? Are you here to participate in the tournament?"

Guzma quickly glanced around, noticing numerous people whispering to each other and staring. He decided to flick his glasses back onto his forehead, look back down at his master and answer, "I'm doin' alright, and no I ain't in the tournament" -he looked around before reaching behind him and gently ushering his students forward- "they are!"

Donnie trembled as he looked up at the Kahuna, to most he didn't appear to be an intimidating presence, but he was terrifying to the young boy. Minnie, knowing Hala would recognize her, pulled her hat down over her face in shame. Hala smiled down at them and asked, "these are your students, correct?" Guzma nodded in response. He gently placed a hand on Donnie's head and ruffled his hair. "Steady yourself young man, I don't bite! And you there Minnie, I see you're back for more!"

She groaned in response and pulled her hat off of her head, pouting. "I honestly wish I wasn't…"

"Nonsense! I've told you before young lady, you're a fine trainer, just a little rough around the edges. I'm sure that under Guzma's guidance both you and your friend here will go above and beyond everyone's expectations!"

The young girl's cheeks flushed while Donnie smiled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head, saying, "I hope so! We've really been trying Sir."

The Kahuna beamed at them. "That's what I like to hear! Your battles will be an amazing offering to our guardian deity. Though I am curious to see how you'll do facing off against the kids I've been training…"

Guzma raised an eyebrow after hearing that. "What? Who? Did'ja take in couple new kids right after shovin' me out the door or something?"

Hala smiled at him. "You're not too far off" –he turned around, placed two fingers in his mouth and whistled sharply- "boys! Get over here!"

Guzma looked past Hala curiously, he then froze and stared wide-eyed once he saw who was approaching. It was none other than two of his former grunts, both looking around 17 years old, decked out head to toe in their Team Skull gear. Once the boys caught sight of him they briefly paused, stunned, before sprinting up to their former boss and shouting, "GUZMA! Is that really you?!"

An overjoyed smile spread across Guzma's face as he held his arms out to them, the boys almost knocked him over with the sheer force of their tackle hugs. They both took off their masks as Guzma let go of them. "Look, it's us Boss! A and B! Do you remember us?!" exclaimed A.

"Holy shit, the Melemele berry thieves?! Hell the fuck yes! Come 'ere!" he quickly grabbed the closest brother, B, in a headlock and noogied him. The other jumped onto his former boss's back, causing him to shout in protest as the grunts laughed.

Minnie covered her mouth, trying not to laugh; she found this sight to be super sweet. Meanwhile Donnie semi-hid behind Minnie, he was concerned with the stares of disapproving parents as they ushered their children away. None of the skull gang seemed to care.

Hala then cleared his throat loudly; Guzma let go of B and groaned a bit before whispering to A, "can you get the hell off me please? You're not exactly a kid," A then slid off of him as the three of them turned to face the Kahuna.

"Guzma, you should take your students and register them as competitors, the matches start in 45 minutes sharp!" reminded Hala.

"Oh shit, you're right… Yeah we gotta go."

B folded his arms and grinned. "Yo boss! Make sure those kids put up a good fight, a'ight?!"

A then chimed in, "hey, I got something to say to you! …Being allies shouldn't make you forget what you see in us. I think I'm feeling a bit treasonous, we'll take ya back to class till you remember our names, if you've come to play we brought the game!"

"YOOOO!" B hi-fived his brother as Guzma grinned proudly.

"Daaaaamn, you've gotten better since I last schooled ya kid!" Guzma's attention was then gently tugged towards the girl at his side.

"Teacher, we gotta go…" she reminded.

"Oh yeah, shit, sorry." He waved to his former grunts and finally led his students to the registration desk, where a familiar pink haired boy was waiting contently.

Ilima smiled warmly when he saw the three of them approach, waved and greeted them, "my my now isn't this a surprise… Now I know today will be truly exciting!"

Guzma folded his arms and looked down at the teen. "Yeah yeah, hey there harlequin boy. How you doin'? You manning the desk or something?"

The captain picked up a number of forms, neatened them and handed them to Guzma. "I'm great, thank you! Just making sure my tournament runs as smoothly as possible! You know what they say; you can never be too careful."

He nodded in agreement. "True… So we just fill these out and we're all good to go?"

"Yes! Remember just one Pokémon per competitor and one item per Pokémon for the whole tournament if you wish… Oh!" –he stood up, leant over the table and pointed to the bottom of the form- "Also there's a small waiver right there that allows me to film the matches, can you kids please sign that too? It's for research purposes."

The kids nodded in agreement and filled out their forms, but just before Donnie could hand back his form Guzma placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hold up a second, does your Pikachu still got that soothe bell on it?"

"Uh… Yeah, why Sir?" The boy now appeared worried.

He reached into his pocket and produced a magnet with a smirk. "Give this to it instead, it'll give 'im a little extra edge."

Ilima whistled as Donnie took the magnet. "In it to win it huh?"

Guzma furrowed his brow at the captain. "Yeah. Why the hell wouldn't I be?"

Ilima closed his eyes and put his hands up in front of him. "Good luck to you my friend, there's plenty of strong trainers here, I'd watch out if I were you!"

Guzma laughed mockingly and shook his head. "You say that as if we're not on Melemele!"

The trial captain then leaned in closer to Donnie and Minnie with a smirk. "You see that kids? Take note, because that's the kind of attitude that results in the most hilarious and _tragic_ of losses."

The young man's eyelid twitched, he lowered his voice. "If that's how you think then how 'bout you get up on that ring and go toe to toe with me, rich boy? Let's see how that goes… Should be a lotta fun kicking your ass." He ignored a particularly fiery student elbowing him in the side for that remark.

"Oh it would be! But I'm actually _really_ busy right now and you're holding up the line! I will take you up on that offer someday though, I can only dream of how exciting that'll be!"

"There ain't no damn line."

"Yes there is, it trails aaaaaaall the way back there! So how's next Saturday for that battle? Midnight? Do we have a date?"

The young man rolled his eyes and grumbled, "yeah yeah whatever… I'm outta here…"

The trio left the registration desk, Guzma shoved his hands in his pockets and made a point in heading towards the Tapu Cocoa stand. Minnie glared up at him as they walked and growled, "can you be any _ruder?!"_

Her teacher tilted his head back and let out an exaggerated sigh. "The rudeness was mutual, besides we're cool anyway… Mosta the time…"

"Like that's an excuse."

"God dammit kid, cut me some slack…"

"No! You should go apologize for threatening him!"

"It doesn't work like that."

"Doesn't work like what?!"

"Oh my god…"

Donnie, seeing the tensions rising, quickly moved between them and interrupted. "Ok, so, I see there's a thing happening right now and I want no part of it so I'm just gonna… Uh…" –they both stared at him, he began to shake anxiously- "u-uh… We're… We're a team ok? Stop bickering and let's just go look at the stands or something… I'll meet you guys near the stage when it's time to battle…"

Guzma let out a deep breath and rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, you're right. Sounds cool. I need a Tapu Cocoa…"

Minnie looked at the ground with her arms crossed, she shrugged in response.

The young boy looked between the two of them; he then gave them a thumbs up, an awkward smile and walked away.

Guzma looked down at Minnie and hunched over a little. "You ok?"

She exhaled and ran her fingers through her hair. "Yeah, I'm just nervous… I think that's why I'm so snappy today…"

He smiled down at her, completely understanding. "Just… Go get an ice cream or somethin' to calm yourself down. You're gonna do great kid, I ain't just saying that too y'know, I know it cuz I've seen it… If you need me you know what to look for." He then gently patted her shoulder and walked away.

Soon after a short and anxious waiting period, exacerbated by the looming storm overhead, the trio rejoined the crowd near the stage to observe the first set of battles. There they learned that there would be three rounds in total, each deciding which of the eight teams progressed to the next round. Guzma leaned against the fence near the back of the crowd, watching intently as Minnie and Donnie approached the wooden stage for their round. The first two had progressed quite quickly, he took careful note of their Pokémon and movesets, ready to prepare his students for whoever they were facing. If he had his way they were going to crush everyone in their path, he was sure of it.

Minnie stood up on the stage, her knees shaking. She loathed to be back in this position again, but at least this time she wasn't alone. The young girl looked towards her friend, who noticed her gaze and smiled reassuringly. She returned the smile; they were a team after all, weeks of preparation would have to pay off somewhat. After all, they were in this together, and despite her notably weak partner Pokémon it should be enough to cover Pikachu's bases. Surely. Hopefully. Definitely.

However, what they didn't prepare for was their competitor for this round. A familiar young girl with bleached blonde hair and long flowing scarf stepped up onto the stage. Iolana turned around and held her hand out, helping a frail looking teenager up onto the stage. Donnie glanced at Minnie then back to their opponents before adjusting his glasses and looking at the pair more closely. The girl with Iolana appeared to be around 17 years old with short, wavy dark hair, olive toned skin and the same passionate light brown eyes as her younger partner. He remembered Iolana bragging about her older sister to him before, he guessed this must be her, but Donnie couldn't help but feel surprised. Iolana tended to describe her as this strong, formidable trainer who had even travelled overseas after completing the island challenge, but seeing her now she appeared very sickly.

Iolana waved to them as the older girl stood tall and gave Donnie and Minnie a spirited smile. "May the best team win, but I'm sure we already know who that is!" she playfully taunted while grinning down at Iolana, who high-fived her older sister.

Minnie and Donnie exchanged a nod and smirked. "We'll give you one heck of a run for your money in that case, and that's a promise!" Minnie exclaimed.

The referee stood up in the middle of the stage. The match between Team Iolana and Leilani vs Team Donnie and Minnie: begin!

The pair quickly released their Igglybuff and Pikachu, while their opponents released Wingull and a Pokémon the students had never seen before, Minccino.

Leilani swiftly pointed to Perry and shouted, "Minccino, use Baby-Doll eyes!"

The chinchilla Pokémon looked at Perry cutely; the electric type locked eyes with the adorable Pokémon and smiled adoringly. This frustrated Donnie, who cried out, "hey! Stop looking at it and use Thundershock on Wingull!"

The Pikachu blinked and looked at the seagull Pokémon, but as it was charging it's shock the quick claw tied around the bird's neck glowed. It moved in time with Iolana's shout and hit Perry with Supersonic; the confusion caused from the distorted sounds caused Perry's own Thundershock to blow up in its face, knocking it backwards.

Minnie commanded her Igglybuff to use defense curl; their opponents were clearly going all out.

"Come on Perry, get up! Use Quick Attack on Wingull!" The yellow mouse pushed itself onto its feet and launched towards the sea bird with a growl, but as it was seeing double it missed entirely, skidding along the wooden boards as it landed.

Iolana yelled, "ok you've got this now Wingull! Use Water Gun on Pikachu!" Soaring through the air the bird Pokémon barrel rolled towards Perry and shot a stream of water at it, knocking it back a couple of meters and straight into Minccino's pound.

Minnie started to panic; they were clearly ganging up on it because of the type advantage. "Igglybuff, quick, sing for Wingull!" she commanded sharply. The small pink Pokémon let out a soothing melody with all its might, the flying type dropped from the sky suddenly and plummeted towards the stage.

"No no no! Wake up Wingull!" shouted Iolana, her Pokémon remained unresponsive.

Perry slowly pushed itself to its feet, an enraged look on its face. It wiped the dirt off of its face and its cheeks crackled with electricity, more than happily when Donnie commanded it to Thunder Shock the sleeping Wingull.

Iolana stared in horror as smoke rose off of her precious bird Pokémon; she quickly returned it to her poke ball, observing the remainder of the match in silent panic.

Perry folded its arms and laughed with a haughty, "pi pi pi!" closing its eyes just long enough for Minccino to crack it across the face with pound, knocking it out cold.

Minnie pointed and shouted, "Charm that Pokémon Igglybuff!"

The fairy type bounced in a circle and made a cute noise, the Minccino looked at it in adoration. It was just so endearing!

Leilani commanded sharply, "use Pound Minccino!"

"Do the same Igglybuff!"

The chinchilla Pokémon moved swiftly around the bouncing Igglybuff, the two exchanged Pound after Pound. The four trainers watched on with gritted teeth and clenched fists, eager to see who would come out on top. In the end, Minccino couldn't take it, and with a final Pound to the nose it slid across the wooden stage unconscious.

Applause rang out from the crowd, but Minnie couldn't hear it as she stared, mouth agape. Her little pink Pokémon turned to her with the most pure smile on its face. She screamed in delight, ran up to it and scooped it up into her arms. The young girl held it close as a soft light enveloped it; Minnie closed her eyes, reopening them to see a very happy Jigglypuff looking up at her. She couldn't stop the tears from streaming down her face as she ran to Donnie; she then jumped up and down with a squeal and ran off the stage to show her teacher.

Donnie grinned and turned to face their opponents; he felt proud of himself and wanted to thank them for an awesome match. Leilani was slowly heading towards him, however, he looked past her to see Iolana looking down at the floor and trembling. His eyes widened in concern. "Uh, Lana? Are you-"

"Don't you talk to me…"she glared at him, pure rage written all over her face.

Her sister frowned at her. "Iolana. Don't start."

"What?! You think that was fair?!" she then turned to Donnie and yelled, "you guys rigged it against us somehow didn't you?!"

Donnie put his hands up defensively. "N-no! We didn't do anything I swear!"

"You must've! You weren't _supposed_ to win! You shouldn't have won! _How dare you take this away from-"_

Leilana suddenly snapped, "Iolana!"

Her sister froze.

"Get off the stage. _Now._ " Iolana looked up at her, tears pricking the corners of her eyes. "I don't care. You know I don't. Go. You're making a scene."

The young girl turned and stormed off the stage, her fists balled at her sides.

Donnie was more confused than he had ever been in his entire life; he searched Leilani's face for answers. The older teen smiled apologetically at him, now that she was up close Donnie noticed that she looked very tired and her skin had eyes had an odd yellow tint to them. "I'm very sorry about that. That battle was fun; your Pikachu sure is a force to be reckoned with!"

Donnie returned the smile. "Yeah it was, your little grey Pokémon really knocked him good…"

"Minccino, it's from the Unova region."

"Oooooh! Cool! I think I might paint it… Would you like me to?"

Leilani grinned warmly. "Aww, I'd love that! Thank you… Tell your friend she was amazing too, ok?"

Donnie nodded. "I will!" She held his hand out to him and he took it, the two shook hands before turning and leaving the stage. Donnie peered over at where Guzma was, him and Minnie were talking each other's ears off about the battle while her Jigglypuff danced around full of energy. He had high hopes for the rest of the day; they actually got to the semis! Perry was making great progress and Minnie was absolutely overjoyed. He jogged over to them, only to be met with a tight hug from Minnie.

"We got through we got through! I can't believe it! _We got through!_ " The young girl practically squeezed all of the air out of her friend's lungs.

Donnie struggled to laugh and returned the hug.

Guzma folded his arms and grinned at them. "Congrats! Damn that one was close though, almost didn't make it. I didn't think that Igglybuff had that much of a right hook on 'em, damn."

Minnie let go of Donnie. "I know right?! He's so strong! Oh my god I don't think I've ever felt this good in my life!" she looked at Donnie with wide eyes, "I think we can actually do it! I think we could win!"

"Yeah! I think so too!"

"That's the spirit ya little suckers! Keep this up and smash whoever you end up against! I can already see your names engraved on that polished gold and damn don't it look good!" Guzma held his fist out to them with a determined smirk; both of his students gave him a fist bump before they turned to each other and excitedly tried to come up with a strategy for their next battle. The young man felt immensely proud of them, they really had come a long way and it was starting to show. Hopefully it was enough.

…

One more battle and the preliminary rounds were over; Guzma sat on the wooden fence, observing the competition with a critical eye. He had confidence in his students, and very little in the abilities of the remaining teams, except for one however. Adrian and Bailey had made it to the next round with their Zubat and Drowzee. Guzma was honestly surprised, his grunts usually sucked more than anyone else at battling, it looked like Hala really had been training them up something fierce. He watched intently as the referee announced who would be facing each other in the semi final, internally hoping that A and B would get knocked out this round so Minnie and Donnie could score an easy win. The young man hunched back over and gritted his teeth in frustration when instead the ref swiftly confirmed his fears.

Great, now he had no idea who to cheer for. Ok, that wasn't true, but it was still exciting to see Team Skull being represented in a positive light by those two. They were always good kids, incompetent as hell, but good. Too good… His eyes practically glazed over during the first match, he didn't care about it anymore, it was the second one he was worried about. Just seeing Donnie and Minnie walk back onto that stage made him feel anxious; he took a deep breath to calm himself. They were going to do ok. They're good strong kids. He wasn't going to let them down. He wasn't going to fail them, he promised himself that.

He watched as the teams sent their Pokémon out, last time they had a huge type advantage over that Wingull but now Guzma wasn't so sure.

Pikachu quickly fired off a Thunder Shock at Zubat. The blue bat swiftly dodged it in time with B's shout and soared straight towards the yellow mouse, sinking its fangs into neck with a Bite. Perry shrieked and tried to fire off another Thunder Shock, however it flinched when A's Drowzee Disabled its Thunder Shock.

Guzma sank his nails into the wood he was sitting on. Jigglypuff tried using Sing on Drowzee, to no avail. _God dammit! It must have insomnia!_ He looked past it to see Perry throw the Zubat off of it and hit it hard with a quick attack. The bat Pokémon struggled to stay in the air, it appeared to be paralysed due to static. _Good! Knock that flying rat out…_

However, A then commanded his Drowzee to use Hypnosis on Jigglypuff, putting it to sleep. _Oh come on! Was he rubbing that in her face?_ Probably. Either way, that wasn't good. Guzma gritted his teeth as Perry came up with a Nasty Plot while Zubat sank lower and lower to the ground. The electric type's efforts quickly earned it a swift Headbutt to the stomach though, and the Jigglypuff wasn't moving.

Guzma stood up and balled his fists. _No, no no no!_

Perry quickly got to its feet and landed a quick attack on the paralysed Zubat, it fainted immediately. He grinned with momentary excitement, now all they had to do was knock out that huge yellow asshole and they were golden!

His excitement was short lived, however, when Drowzee used Confusion on Perry. The Pikachu's head appeared to twitch for a moment before it collapsed unconscious. Guzma's eyes were wide. Jigglypuff woke up.

 _No…_

Drowzee looked down on it with a twisted smile and pounded its fists.

Guzma gripped tightly at his hair. Jigglypuff's pound barely put a dent in the opposing Pokémon. The whooping it received in return was absolutely devastating.

Guzma then dropped his hands to his sides, turned around and walked away.

…

Minnie and Donnie shook hands with their victorious opponents, who were clearly over the moon. They were obviously the only happy ones, numerous members of the crowd were expressing their disappointment with a couple of Team Skull grunts getting to the finals. Knowing this Minnie congratulated them wholeheartedly, they didn't deserve the negative rap, they were just here to have good clean fun and it showed. As the duo left the stage Donnie looked at his friend and commented, "you know… I think we did pretty good!"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah! This was a lot of fun too… Do you… Uh…" -Donnie rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly- "do you wanna keep being partners? Go to all these tournaments together?"

Minnie's cheeks went red and she smiled bashfully. "Yeah, I'd like to… I used to _hate_ coming to these, but I never knew how fun double battles could be…"

Donnie positively beamed at her. "Oh my god yes! I think our Pokémon work well together, how about we get some pointers from- wait a second… Either I'm actually going blind or Guzma is gone…"

Minnie stopped dead in her tracks; her teacher was very much absent from his spot on the fence. She frantically looked around, yet there was no obvious tuft of white hair in sight. Hot rage began to pool in her stomach. "Oh he did _NOT!"_

Donnie flinched and watched as Minnie stormed towards the stairs. He quickly caught up to her and stammered, "u-uh… You don't really think he left do you?"

"Oh no I really think he did! I wouldn't exactly put it past- LOOK THERE HE IS!" Minnie pointed ahead of her; Guzma had just turned the corner onto Route 1.

The pair of them raced through Iki Town, dodging residents and tournament goers before shooting onto Route 1. The pair of them sprinted up behind their teacher, who stopped in the middle of the path and glanced back to see who was running. He hunched right over when he saw who it was and looked down at the dirt road. Minnie huffed and puffed, holding her finger up as she caught her breath. She then slowly took a deep breath before screaming, "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

Guzma shot a nasty glare at her. "Going home. The fuck does it look like?"

Minnie's face contorted with rage at that response, Donnie put a hand on her shoulder and spoke up instead. "S-sir… Why are you walking away…?"

He growled through gritted teeth. "Can't you see? Tournament's over. Go home…" -he took a breath exhaling slowly- "I'll see you both Monday."

"But- but it's not!"

Minnie swiftly cut in, " _what?!_ Are you butthurt because we lost or something?! Is that why you're leaving?! Because if I'm right that's just pathetic!"

Guzma turned around, looming over the two of them. "You know what? I'll take that label! Pathetic! Has a nice ring to it doesn't it?! I'll add it to the rest of the stupid god-awful traits I have! Hope you have fun putting up with them!"

Minnie stood on her toes and yelled up at him, "oh my gosh why are you like this?! We got into the semi final! _We won bronze!"_

Guzma put a hand in his hair and laughed bitterly. "Oh so you really like that bronze huh?! Well I hope you learn to _love it_ kid cuz if you stick with me that's all you're ever gonna get!"

"What are you talking about?!"

The young man gritted his teeth, he had a pained look in his eye. "Oh nothing! Maybe just the fact that after what, _15 fucking years_ competing in these bullshit tournaments I was never strong enough to get past second place. So why the hell did I think I'd be good enough to pull a couple kids up outta the mud?! Not to mention that everyone that spends time around me seems to suck ass at everything, yet the second Hala gets his hands on two of my old grunts they start to do absolutely fuckin' great! Apparently the universe just decided that whoever I try to help will end up subpar at best and rock fucking bottom at worst! So there! _That's what I'm talking about!"_

Minnie gaped at him, absolutely mind blown. She held his gaze and snapped, "oh my god! Guzma! _THIS ISN'T ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT!"_

Guzma blinked for a moment before tilting his head ever so slightly.

Minnie rolled her eyes dramatically and shot daggers at him. "So what you've been telling me is that _you're_ angry because we didn't win first place so now _you_ can't get to gloat to everyone and pat _yourself_ on the back for helping us come first, is that it?!"

His eyelid twitched at that. "Stop talking like you know shit Minnie…"

"Oh no I'm going to keep talking, because I clearly need to put this in perspective for you! But first I want an answer, are you unhappy because we didn't win?!"

Guzma grimaced. "Fine! Yes!"

"There! Well it looks like I have to remind you why you even offered to help us in the first place! For me it was to get my dad off my case about sucking at battles, for Donnie it was to get his Pikachu to actually listen to a word he's saying for once, wasn't it Donnie?!"

The young boy cowered, but nodded in agreement.

"And you know what? _You did it!_ Teacher, I've never even got past the pre-lims in these competitions! I got to the second round in a double battle tournament; do you have any idea how huge that is for me?! Not to mention Igglybuff finally evolved! I mean, I've never even _been_ in a double battle tournament before today because no one wanted to battle with a _loser_ like me!" -she gritted her teeth as tears pricked the corners of her eyes- "and you're so damn self absorbed that you can't even be proud of that…"

The young man stared down at her with wide eyes, absolutely speechless. He inhaled sharply, rubbed the back of his neck and looked away.

Donnie then quietly spoke up. "U-uh, Sir… You… You really helped with Perry you know… He actually listens to what I say now, we can work together… Did you forget how much that really means to me…? I'm not gonna lose my best friend now, and it's all thanks to you…"

Guzma screwed his eyes shut in frustration and shook his head. "Guzma… _What's wrong with you…_ I'm… You're right… I'm being fuckin' stupid."

"Sir… You're not stupid…"

"I'm sure as hell actin' like it though… Let's just go back…"

Minnie sniffled, wiped her eyes with her sleeve and nodded in agreement.

Her teacher crouched in front of her. "Hey… Stop cryin' ok? I'm sorry… I got a bunch of personal crap I hafta work through that nothing to do with you and I shouldn't have taken it out on you. You're smarter than I'll ever be and actually goin' places, I'm a stupid street thug that got lucky... And you're right; I really gotta get over myself…"

The young girl smiled a little. "You even admitting that shows you're smarter than you think, teacher…"

He shrugged, only to freeze up when his student hugged him around his neck. He gently returned the hug, mumbling another apology before letting her go. Guzma stood up and looked between the two of them before starting to walk back to Iki town.

"Sir… We probably missed the last two battles…" Donnie mentioned.

"Yeah? Doesn't matter too much… I got a good feeling A and B smashed whoever they faced off against in the final… I wanna tell 'em I'm proud of them… And god damn that persistence, even after like three months of being disbanded they're still reppin' my gang… That takes guts even I don't have…"

"And I want my trophy…"

"That too. My advice? Don't put too much stock in 'em like I do; don't be like ya boi…"

"I think I'm gonna just pick and choose the good parts if I want to be like you…"

That made Guzma smile a little. "That's a good way to go about it…"

A strong gust of almost blew the trio back slightly, Donnie took out his umbrella just to be ready. Their teacher looked to the sky, the clouds had grown dark, he swore he saw odd coloured lightning striking near the west of the island. "Put that away, it won't help in this wind. Just stick close to me until I get y'all home, ok? Don't want this storm to wash away more than it needs to…"


	25. Chapter 25: Such A Beautiful Morning

**Author's Note:** I'm very excited to announce that an audio production of Great Teacher OniGuzma is in the works, sponsored by Guzcast! I'm seeking voice talent for various characters, so if you're interested in lending your voice to this production please PM me for a discord link on either my Tumblr or ffnet account! I'll be setting up auditions soon, thank you very much and I hope you all continue to enjoy this story!

Rain drizzled lightly upon Alola's largest city, dark clouds shielded its residents from the normally harsh sunlight and the tide had swallowed the beach, creeping up to the concrete. It was such a beautiful morning, at least, according to Team Skull's old boss. The young man waltzed through the streets casually, happy to have them practically all to himself on this lazy Sunday morning. He wasn't doing much of anything, but taking a walk to get out of the house every now and again never hurt.

Guzma paused momentarily as his smart phone buzzed; he unlocked it to see that Plumeria had messaged him a number of photos of her new apartment along with a selfie. She was wearing Roselia themed winter PJs, leading him to guess that it was night where she was. He then sent her a picture in return; he had his hoodie up over his head, with his slightly damp white hair poking out from under it and an awkward yet sweet smile on his face. It was captioned with a peace sign. Plumeria grinned to herself; she could tell that he was actually having a nice time for once with whatever he was doing.

Guzma then sent her a message: "Wanna call?"

"Sure."

And that was all it took, Plumeria leaned back into the pillows on her soft, new bed as she answered him, "yo G, whassup?"

"Uhhh, nothin' really, just wanted to chat. Lost my ability to fuckin' sleep in so I'm out on the town. What're you up to?"

The young woman reached for her Skitty doll and cuddled it close. "Finally finished unpacking everything, it's getting a little late so I was just gonna relax and all that."

He continued his leisurely stroll through the rain as he spoke. "That's real cool Plumes, and god damn the place you got looks real nice!"

"Right?! It's real modern and shit, kinda plain though but then again I didn't bring too much with me. I gotta get used to all this space too, it's kinda big."

Guzma raised an eyebrow. "Really? How so?"

"Just like…" –she counted the areas on her fingers- "one bedroom, bathroom, laundry, kitchen and livin' area."

"That's not that big… at all."

"Uh, yeah it is! I get more than one room to myself for once! This _whole place_ is actually mine… Fuck, it's kinda a head trip you know? I don't gotta share with like three or more people anymore and if I get lonely I've got my Pokémon. I can't really stand the quiet though… It gets to me a lil'."

"Play some music or whatever, it ain't hard to fix that. You gotta make the place feel like home somehow."

"Yeah… I should, you're right…" She stared absentmindedly up at the ceiling.

"Ok so you sound kinda apprehensive and shit, you sure you're ok Plumes?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah, yeah… I'm alright. I love it here so far, I really do… It's just not the same y'know?"

"I get that…" Guzma frowned slightly and looked around; he perked up slightly when he spied something in a shop front. "Well, on that note, I got an idea. How 'bout I send ya a little care package? Just a bunch of shit to remind you of home?"

Plumeria couldn't help but smile to herself, she sat up. "G… You don't have to…"

Guzma walked up to the shopfront window and peered inside. "Yeah, I don't, but I just saw a cute as fuck Wimpod plush and I know you don't got one in that little collection of yours!"

"What you mean by 'little'?! I got like 30 dolls in that collection! I don't need another."

He smirked mischievously. "Yeah, I know, but with this one you can cuddle it at night and think of me…"

A blush crossed her cheeks as she subconsciously gripped her doll tighter.

"Ooo what? Did I take your breath away or somethin'?" he said smoothly, masking his internal panic.

"D-… I… You're such a dummy!" she pursued her lips at the sound of his laughter and threw her doll at the wall.

"You just threw a doll, didn't you?"

"I hate that you know that!"

The young man chuckled. "I'm buying you the Wimpod."

"Fine! Do it! I don't care!"

"Uh, yes you do, you'll love it Plumes."

"Well, you know what? If you're gonna be such a smartass about it then imma get you somethin' too! I'm gonna bet 50P right now that you're wearing your skull jacket right this second, am I correct Guzma?"

"Uhhhhh, no."

She snorted and tried to stop herself from laughing. "You just sent me a selfie dumbass!"

"Well I dunno what you're getting' at!" –he turned away from the phone- "yeah just that one, thanks."

"What I'm gettin' at is that if you're getting me this shit then imma outclass that jacket and make you a new one! A better one!"

Guzma exited the store, shoving the doll into the key items section of his jacket pocket. "Bullshit, you can't get better than this, for real!"

"I'll put even more pocket space in it."

"Ok now that I'd love to see because I'm almost sure I could fit a car in this thing if the holes were big enough. But anyway, Plumes can't you just accept a gift? Imma get you a bunch of shit and I know you're sayin' this cuz you think you gotta pay me back."

"I'm not!"

"You are! You always do this shit Plumes, god you gotta relax a second you just got there."

"I am! I just… Dude, Guzma, I actually wanna get you somethin' too ok? I ain't seen you much lately and I'm not gonna see you again for a while… Also you don't get presents much."

The young man sighed. "Yeah…"

Plumeria tapped her cheek, trying to think of a suitable gift other than the jacket. "Can't really buy you somethin' though… I start work tomorrow and don't get paid for a little while, but there's some cool exotic Pokémon if you want me to catch one?"

He thought to himself for a moment. "Uh… There's a bunch, but there's one I'm really eyeing…"

"Yeah?"

"A Skorupi, they may not stay a bug type when they evolve but they're still a badass Pokémon. If you get me one of those I'll slide you a Bounsweet."

She audibly gasped. " _Deal!_ Hell yes just gimmie a bit, the marsh you find 'em in is about a town over from where I'm at."

"No rush."

Plumeria smirked to herself. "You know, I _would_ say you can cuddle that little scorpion like a Stufful doll yourself, but it's a bit spiky. Not sure how that'd work."

Guzma tilted his head and grinned. "So it's got its thorns? Not too big a deal, I mean you do too and yet I wouldn't mind being a repeat customer..."

"Oh my _god_ …" -she covered her eyes as her cheeks flushed red and yelled- "stop turnin' my own shit back on me G!"

He closed his eyes and laughed. "It's so easy though! Damn you're bad at this…"

"Not usually! I'm just tired! Still a bit jet lagged…"

"Then go to bed! It's like, late over there right?"

"Yeah, but I'm having trouble falling asleep."

"Play some music or somethin', I dunno…"

"I'll get used to it eventually… I should probably at least try though."

"Sounds good, I'll catcha later, a'ight Plumes?"

"Yeah… Talk later G, goodnight."

"Night."

Guzma exited out of the voice call, stood up straight and looked around, he had zoned out just a little while talking to Plumeria. He was at the beachfront; the waves were looming dangerously close to the concrete stairs. Consequently the young man decided to stick closer to the shopfront just in case some kind of monster wave decided to come barrelling through, or worse, a Frillish reached out and tried to grab his leg. However he soon spotted something curious ahead of him; a familiar young boy standing under the balcony of a boutique talking to an older woman. There was a mat spread out in front of him covered with various items and a Meowth grooming itself, the grey cat Pokémon stood and gave a bow to the lady as its trainer handed her a small paper bag.

He headed over and looked down at the mat as Kalino waved and greeted him, "woah, hey Mr Guzma! I didn't think you'd be out this early, or at all actually!"

Guzma shrugged in response. "Just gotten used to gettin' up early I guess… So what've you got here, kid?" he asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

Kalino adjusted his beanie and stood with a confident smile. "A number of _amazing_ deals just for you, that's what! Rare items, jewellery, trinkets, Pokémon toys, everything you see here is for sale!" He gestured to his mat as his Meowth mewed in agreement.

The young man raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? Sell it to me then."

Kalino then grinned in a charming manner and began presenting a few items. "Well, for a Pokémon battling expert such as yourself I have a couple of things that might interest you..." he picked up a small bone, turning it this way and that to show it off, "this here's a little known item, a Thin Bone, thought to come from a very powerful water dwelling Pokémon. It raises the attack power of water type moves when held! Might be good for Golisopod, I heard it's a water type…"

Guzma slowly nodded. "Uh huh…"

"Here we have a Black Feather; usually it comes from the biggest, baddest Honchkrow in Unova and raises the power of dark type moves! Or if ghosts are more up your alley there's this Cursed Amulet, many were found in an ancient Johtoan temple; hold it and it allows ghosts to hit normal type Pokémon! Isn't that a trip? A must have for any ghost type!"

"…Sure."

"If you've got some real powerful moves that don't always hit their mark I have some Wise Glasses, they'll improve your Pokémon's accuracy if you let them wear them! Or a classic bag of soft sand, you can never go wrong with ground types after all! However, if you're all sorted on battle items I have a bunch of evolution stones for sale, or this rare reaper cloth… Filled with dark energy, I've heard certain suspicious Pokémon really like it…"

Guzma hold a hand up. "Alright imma stop you right there kid."

The boy quickly put his hands behind his back and smiled "Did you see something you like, teacher?"

The young man crouched down and lowered his voice. "No, but I did see a Magikarp rib, a Murkrow feather, ratty lookin' beads on a string, sand right off the beach, a stained rag, coloured glass and some poor sucker's stolen prescription."

Kalino went about three shades paler, grinned awkwardly and glanced away from his teacher. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Well I do, 'cuz I did the exact same shit when I was your age…"

Kalino blinked in surprised, leaned in and whispered, "wait, you did?"

Guzma nodded. "Any money I had on me I had to earn myself… Can I give you some advice kid? From one crook to another?"

The young boy frowned. "I'm not a crook… But, yes, please."

He gestured to the fake battle items and whispered, "get rid of this shit! You've probably scammed some poor kid or beginner trainer countless times but the second you're unlucky enough to have an experienced trainer check this stuff out and decide to rat you out to the cops you're gonna be in a world of trouble… Especially if someone recognises those stolen glasses… On that note, I got a question for ya."

"Uhhh… Yeah?"

"You know what to do if the cops actually show up suspecting you for stealin', right? Doesn't matter if you really did it or not, that's not important."

Kalino shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "I just say I don't know nothin', I didn't see nothin', I didn't see anyone that knows nothin' and I definitely don't know someone who saw somethin'…"

Guzma stopped himself from laughing and corrected him, "alright kid, you say shit like that when you've got a lawyer, but for you? You just say 'they ran off that way officer' and give some vague description. Wait you know what? Say they've got a big R on their shirt, they'll _love_ that…"

The young boy gave a knowing smirk. "Hasn't that group split up for like… 10 years? How 'bout I say they had a big fat S instead?"

His teacher frowned and lowered his eyebrows seriously. "Don't give my grunts any more bad rep when they ain't been doin' nothin'…"

"Ok ok I was joking! Geez, back off man… But like, wouldn't that cause panic if people started to believe Team Rocket was in Alola? Rumours spread like wildfire here…"

Guzma chuckled. "Anyone who actually buys that is an idiot, dude! I mean, what's gonna happen?! Ol' Giovanni's gonna come waltzin' through a portal outta the sky and just let loose on Alola out of nowhere?! Fuckin' seriously?! Next thing they'll be saying Galactic's old boss is alive too!" he laughed to himself for a minute before composing himself and saying, "alright alright, I'm on a rant… But I gotta make somethin' clear, not once have I suggested you steal, what you do is your business and you ain't heard none of this from me kid."

Kalino smiled and shrugged. "I got a hearing problem anyway teach. Snitches get stiches and I can't afford those, man…"

His teacher frowned. "I ain't about to jump a kid, homie, damn… Anyway I gotta ask about all this other stuff here… Did you make all of this?" Guzma pointed towards the small poke dolls and trinkets.

"Uh, yeah I did… I sewed the dolls, made the jewellery and painted the cups and stuff…" Kalino rubbed the back of his neck, feeling uncomfortable. "But I don't wanna get rid of the items…"

"Why?"

"They're easy to get! The other stuff I have to make takes a while and doesn't make enough for the time put in…"

"Oh crap good point…" Guzma thought to himself for a few seconds. "Ever tried selling berries? Or those orange mushrooms you find everywhere?"

Kalino shook his head and said, "I don't know where to get berries… And people want those mushrooms?"

"Yes! Some people will pay up to 10,000P for the big ones!"

The boy's eyes almost bulged out of his skull. "Are you for real?!"

"Yes! And you can get berries from the farmer on Route 2; he'll even pay you to pick them for him. Also a bunch of Pokemon drop items… Have you ever seen weird black tar in the grass in the school?"

Kalino nodded, listening intently.

"That's called Black Sludge; Grimers leave it behind, it poisons Pokémon but heals poison types, get some of that in a jar and trust me people will buy. Or the apple cores on Route 1, you seen those?"

"Yes, they look kinda yuck though…"

"Those are Leftovers, Munchlax drop them and literally every trainer wants them! They're real valuable and that way you'll draw in more people when they see you've actually got a bunch of them! Not to mention that since it takes a while to look for 'em no one wants to bother doing it themselves, so they'll just flock to you for convenience sake! They won't mind payin' a little extra if they don't gotta do the work themselves. So are you following me kid? You see what I'm getting at?"

Kalino's eyes were shining brightly, outclassed only by his Meowth. "Please teach me more…"

Guzma gave a sly smirk. "Oh definitely… One second though, I actually wanna buy somethin' from you before I forget."

The young boy grinned joyously and stepped to the side. "Please have a look then!"

He eyed the items curiously; there were a number of cute hand-sewn poke dolls, Alolan-style wooden jewellery, souvenirs and general odds and ends. The young man tilted his head at the sight of a small jar filled with clear liquid and pointed to it, asking, "whats in that?"

"Oh! That's water with Shiinotic spores in it, you give it a shake like this" –he picked up the jar and shook it vigorously. "it glows! It lasts all night too and you can just reuse it over and over and it never runs out! It makes a really cool night light too!"

Guzma grinned. "Make more of those if ya can... Peddle a couple at school to the little ones too, but do it quietly…" He then picked up a clay mug, it was hand painted in the image of Tapu Koko, clearly a lot of time and effort was put into it. Plumeria would probably love it. "How much for this?"

"500P."

"I'll give you double for it."

Kalino's eyes widened. "Really?!"

Guzma grinned. "Yeah, just for the amazing customer service."

The young boy absolutely beamed when Guzma handed him the money, his Meowth climbed onto his shoulders and swatted at their teacher playfully.

The man then pocketed the mug and started with, "alright so I got a few more tips for ya if you don't mind listenin' for a while-" however he was then interrupted by his phone ringing. Guzma frowned in annoyance as he took it out of his pocket, he didn't recognise the number. "Lemme take this for a second, alright?"

Kalino nodded and stroked his Pokémon; Guzma stood up and answered the phone, "whaddup? It's ya boi."

Through the receiver he was met with unintelligible crying and yelling, his eyes widened in confusion as a young boy's voice yelled with a strained voice, "PLEASE! PLEASE HELP! THERE'S SCREAMING AND THE SKY'S FALLING APART AND I CANT SEE I CANT GET THEIR VOICES OUT PLEASE TEACHER _AIDEZ-MOI S'IL VOUS PLAÎT!"_

The boy sobbed uncontrollably as his teacher responded, "whoa woah woah! Slow the fuck down! Is that you Curtis?! What's goin' on?! Are you ok?!"

"Je ne vais pas bien! Something's gone really bad! I woke up this morning and my head was screaming and the room's falling apart with colours and my friends can't call you to say what's wrong! They're in danger sir! _They're gonna die!"_

Guzma paced back and forth, panicking. "Who's in danger?! What are you talking about?!"

"Nate and Keahi! They're at the top with the Rattatas and hiding and it's dark and if I go the roaches will be angry at me! Their link to you shattered and I can't get their voices out all the Pokémon are yelling at me I don't want them to die I had to call you please help them teacher please my head hurts so much j'ai mal j'ai mal _j'ai mal j'ai mal-"_ Curtis kept shakily repeating himself through tears.

The man stopped in his tracks. Rattatas, darkness… at the top? The top of the island? North…? Wait. "Curtis!"

"Y-yeah?!"

"I need you to call the international police and tell them to go to Verdant Cavern right now! You hear me?!"

"Verdant Cavern?"

"Yes, that! I'll handle this!" Guzma quickly hung up the phone and turned to Kalino, who was staring up at him with wide, scared eyes. "You get to the end of the fucking street right now" –he pointed to his left- "go to that huge mansion behind the hedges and find that pink haired kid! You've seen him before, his name's Ilima, get him to go to Verdant Cavern right now!"

"Wh-what about you?!"

"Don't worry about me!" Without another word Guzma took off, sprinting faster than he ever had in his life down the street. Time seemed to have sped up; the scenery passed by him in an adrenaline-fuelled blur as he raced up the hills, dodged past trainers and shook off wild Pokémon without so much as a thought. There was no telling how long it took to reach the cavern; Guzma slowed down to briefly catch his breath before entering, only to notice there was no trial guide present. That wasn't a good sign. He reached into his pocket and took out an ultra ball before slowly walking into the trial site and taking in his surroundings.

No Rattata or Zubat, common residents of the cave system, could be seen anywhere. The sheer lack of noise was disturbing. Guzma slowly began to walk further into the cave, the only sounds he was able to hear being his footsteps and heart beat. He kept his head on a swivel, but saw nothing until he spotted an object illuminated by a patch of light. He stopped moving, it was a smashed smart phone, and judging by the case it belonged to Keahi.

His breath caught in his throat, there was no sign of them anywhere. Taking a peek down into the ravine at least confirmed that they didn't fall down and break their necks. He backed up a little, constantly looking around, but every noise he tried to locate either seemed to move or turned out to be nothing. Suddenly he stopped moving, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up; there were eyes on him. A slight shuffling noise and a slight amount of falling dirt caused him to ever so slowly look up. Guzma's body froze; directly above him clinging to the roof and staring down, was an ultra beast. Pheromosa.

Initially the creature didn't move; its long antennae twitched along the cave roof, flinching back at every touch. Guzma's eyes were locked onto it; he armed his ultra ball, ready to release Golisopod any moment. Before he could do anything, however, he heard a voice from a den in front of him cry out, "teacher, behind you!"

The man flinched, glanced behind him and leaped to the side, just in time to dodge the Lunge of a second Pheromosa. He quickly released Golisopod, who used the shell of its huge limbs out to defend its trainer from a devastating Triple Kick. The second beast leapt from the roof. Guzma released Pinsir. The Pheromosa shot towards him at ungodly speed, Pinsir managed to catch its legs in a vice grip and send it flying with a Storm Throw while Golisopod Sucker Punched the other. Guzma ran around the area frantically, the beasts seemed far more focused on him than his Pokémon. He covered his ears as one of the Pheromosa let out a Bug Buzz and almost fell backwards as Golisopod used a Waterfall to protect him from an attack, followed by nearly being impaled by Pinsir's Stone Edge.

Very soon, after taking blow after blow for its trainer Golisopod couldn't take any more and collapsed, Guzma swiftly returned it and released Masquerain in its place. He had no time to think about his partner Pokémon's wellbeing as he commanded the moth Pokémon to use Air Slash. Tears appeared in the target Pheromosa's wing-like head crest; it let out a deep, distorted scream and retreated into the cavern. Guzma then grinned as he saw Pinsir continuing to defend him, though it was having trouble striking the creature. _Just one more to go, just one more-_

Suddenly, after hearing the screech, two more Ultra Beasts leaped out of the ravine and rushed towards him. In a panic he released the rest of his team, just in time to see Pinsir take a Triple Kick to the face, rendering it unconscious. Ariados shot a Toxic Thread to block their quick pursuit; however the beast's Bug Buzz shook and shredded the thread, earning the spider a Lunge. Scizor went toe to toe with another, uppercutting it with a Bullet Punch; it was then quickly outsped and Triple Kicked. Guzma continued to avoid any conflict, his Masquerain sticking close and aiding with Air Slash, but the beasts were too fast. They kept running circles around his team, the only one even scraping by with dodges was Masquerain who zipped behind rocks and into crevices before landing an Air Slash, chasing off a second Pheromosa.

Guzma suddenly stopped and jumped out of the way of his Ariados, which was launched against the cave wall with a sickening crack. He returned it only to then see his Scizor be Triple Kicked into the roof, it stopped moving. The two remaining beasts turned to face him and his moth Pokémon; its trainer looked to it in desperation and took out a pocket knife. The moth Pokemon puffed up its eye-like antenna and took aim at one of the Pheromosa; the opposing creature then shot towards the bug and copied its Ice Beam with Me First, shooting it out of the air.

Guzma balked at the sight of his knocked out team for about two seconds before a beast dashed towards him, it ducked under the swipe of his knife with ease, swatting his arm to the side and disarming him. It then lifted him into the air and threw him; he collided against the rocky cave wall, hitting his head hard.

His vision fizzled away into a distorted haze as he slumped down against the wall, every noise faded into an echo, leaving him unable to hear the distant shouting of one of his students as the Pheromosa closed in. Guzma only managed to look up for a few moments before everything faded to black...

Nathan gripped Keahi tightly around the waist as she attempted to scramble out of the Rattata den they were hiding in; he tried to cover her mouth to quiet her screaming but she bit down hard in response. He cried out, then gritted his teeth through the pain and shouted, " _stop it!_ There's nothing _you_ can do!" The boy held her back long enough for the Raticate in charge to block the exit, squeaking a hurried warning at the children.

Keahi threw Nathan off of her, gripped her hair tightly and shouted through tears, " _why are you just sitting there?! He's gonna die! I have to do something!"_

Nathan didn't appear to be paying attention, instead choosing to hurriedly stuff what looked like a rope cylinder down the barrel of what appeared to be a homemade pipe bazooka.

Keahi shoved hard against the Raticate. " _What's wrong with you?!_ You always say you're gonna be a hero and now you're sitting here watching those monsters kill him?! _I hate you!"_ –she punched the Raticate with full force, prompting it to grab her and hold her tightly- " _Get out of my way you stupid rat!"_

While the both of them were distracted Nathan quickly crawled to the exit, looked back at her, smiled through the fear and said, "you stay here and hide, I've got this Cammy." She locked eyes with him briefly before he ran outside; the Raticate hurriedly blocked the exit with its body as she cried out in panic.

The boy stood up, hoisted his homemade cannon onto his shoulder and frantically looked around to spot the two Pheromosa looming over his teacher. One had picked up the unconscious man by his shirt. Nathan took aim and pulled the trigger, shooting a rope net at the beast. It dropped his teacher in shock as the adhesive capsules on the net burst, sticking it to its body. The Pheromosa screamed and writhed, trying to shake the net and becoming more tangled as a result. The second ultra beast's gaze locked onto him, seeing this Nathan threw a smoke ball onto the ground in front of him. It shot across the cavern and into the black cloud, but the boy was gone.

Nathan stuffed a second net capsule into the bazooka's barrel and stood up from behind the rock where he was hiding. The beast's head snapped towards him, it tried to run at him but found that its feet were stuck to the ground. Nathan internally thanked the heavens that his Goodra slime worked and shot the net at the Pheromosa, which screamed in response. He then produced an ultra ball, armed it and threw it at the creature, only to then suddenly be grabbed by the first beast. It yanked him into the air by his arm; he kicked and shouted as the Pheromosa reared its other arm back. He stared into its wild, enraged eyes, frantically trying to kick free. Tears streamed down his cheeks and time seemed to slow down as it thrusted its arm towards his stomach, however, it then froze. His eyes widened as a distorted pink aura surrounded its head, knocking the creature back and sending him crashing to the ground.

The beast scurried down into the ravine in a daze, Nathan blinked for a moment, none of the pain from the impact registering. He slowly sat up, only to be met face to face with a Raichu; the Pokémon spun around on its board and squeaked at him happily. The boy wiped away his tears and tilted his head at this strange Pokémon; he then flinched as an unfamiliar voice yelled, "hey! Are you ok?!"

He stared as a strange young boy ran up to him, still trying to take all of this in. "Yeah… I'm ok… I think…? I'm not dead, right?"

The boy grinned. "Heh heh, well I hope you're not! Man that was too close though… Must've been plenty scary!" He held his hand out to Nathan, who took it and was pulled to his feet.

Nathan looked around the cavern past the other kid, only to see what looked like Kalino and Keahi trying to rouse their unconscious teacher. He turned to his saviour and asked, "thank you, really… But… Who are you…?"

He put a hand on the back of his head and gave a big smile. "Name's Hau! Your friend over there was running around in a panic so I asked what's up, he saw my Z-ring and asked if I could help!" Hau's smiled faltered a little as he looked back towards Guzma. "Glad I came when I did… This could've ended much worse…" –he turned back towards Nathan- "Hey, let's get outta here, ok?! Those white roach things might come back!"

Nathan watched as Hau quickly jogged over to the others, who were following as Guzma was being dragged away by international police officials. The young boy looked down at the ground, only to see a singular sealed ultra ball resting upon a patch of dried Goodra slime. He walked over to it and picked it up, studying it without a word. His grip tightened on it, he bared his teeth in frustration and regret before following his classmates and that new boy out of the cavern. He completely forgot to pick up his homemade net shooter; as far as he was concerned, it wasn't important anymore.

A number of grey vans surrounded the area; their lights illuminated the rain, giving the area a crystal-like appearance. Strange looking personal rushed past Nathan as he tried to pick his friends out from the small crowd. But first there was something he had to do. He walked around, searching for someone who looked important, or at the very least stood out. Soon he spotted a man in a brown trench coat quickly writing down notes on a large touch pad in the back of a van; he appeared focused yet had an almost rattled look to him. Good enough, he guessed.

The strange man did a double take when he spotted Nathan staring at him from the back of the vehicle. Looker quickly scanned the touch pad before putting it aside and stepping out onto the dirt. "You, young man! Is your name Nathan? You match the description given to me concerning this particular Ultra Beast incident!"

He nodded. "That's me…" Nathan couldn't help but wonder who gave this man a description of him.

"Then child before I question you on this incident I must ask; are you ok? I can't imagine how harrowing that experience must've been!"

His right arm throbbed with pain from where the Pheromosa yanked him and where Keahi bit him. Come to think of it his back also hurt from the fall; all in all, he wasn't doing too good. "I'm ok; I'll have a few bruises later but otherwise I'm just glad my friend is alright… My teacher on the other hand…" he glanced over to where Guzma appeared to be awake and receiving medical treatment. Nathan then met the man's eyes sharply and stated, "I have something I need to give to you, if you're an official on this operation I mean."

"I am the second in command! Any information or evidence you have for me will be dutifully passed on to the chief, I assure you!"

The boy held out the ultra ball in his hand with a serious look on his face. "I thought I wanted it… But now, I'm not…" –he momentarily trailed off, glancing towards his friends who were being checked over by paramedics- "Just take it away from me. Please. There's an Ultra Beast inside…"

Looker's eyes widened as he stared at the blood stained capsule. "Are you serious?! Please let me see it!" Nathan handed it over and the investigator ran it through a machine in the van, gaping when the boy's claim was confirmed. He brought the ball back to Nathan. "You must tell me how you managed to capture one of these creatures! I will need a full incident report- _holy smokes child your hand!"_

The boy looked confused for a moment before looking at his right hand, the colour drained from his face. The bite Keahi gave him was seeping blood all down his arm; he started to shake as the horrible, burning pain suddenly hit him. Looker personally ushered the Nathan over to the paramedics, taking down the incident report to keep him distracted from the pain as his wound was disinfected and bandaged.

Meanwhile, Guzma had slowly come to; he was lying under a makeshift shelter while waiting for a proper transportation vehicle to pick him up. Great, the last damn thing he wanted was a trip to the hospital, but judging from the throbbing pain in his head and how downright sick he felt he concluded that it was for the best. Apparently he had no spinal injuries though, which was a relief to say the least. But every little stupid noise just made his pain worse, so he requested the three kids hovering over him like Cutieflies to leave, despite how relieving it was to know they were ok. He closed his eyes, he didn't want to think about anything, only rest and hope to god that the pain went away soon.

An indeterminate amount of time had passed before Guzma's attention was unpleasantly ripped back to the world around him by a familiar, rage inducing voice. "Excuse me… I'm sorry to bother you, but can we talk…?"

The man groaned loudly and forced himself to sit up; he placed a hand on his forehead and leaned on his knees as he glared up at Nathan. "If you know what's good for you you'll get the fuck out of my sight right now…" he growled.

The boy subconsciously picked at the tight bandage on his right hand and averted his gaze. "I'll leave… But first I just have to say-"

Guzma suddenly snapped, _"shut the fuck uu_ -AHHH!" –he gripped his head tightly and stopped himself from gagging with all his strength, he then lowered his voice and shot daggers at Nathan- "shut the hell up… I know exactly what you're about to say and sorry ain't gonna fucking cut it. You wanna know why? Cuz then you get to go home and sleep at night because all that happened was that one of your twisted little games didn't work out exactly as you planned, but hey at least you apologized! Meanwhile I'm sittin' here waiting for a damn ambulance cuz if I didn't show up when I did they woulda been scrapin' you and your best friend off the cave floor cuz of a stupid, dangerous fuckin' decision you made... Keahi's the only reason I didn't walk away from that when I had the chance. Think about that."

He then lied back down and turned away from Nathan. After a minute of silence he heard the boy slowly walk away, the sound of his footsteps was quickly drowned out by the sound of sirens blaring. Guzma slowly reached into his pocket and took out his phone, blearily typing a message to Kukui, asking to pick him up from the hospital later. He then ignored the five subsequent messages from his worried roommate as he messaged Plumeria.

"Somthin happneded"

"What's wrong G? Are you ok?"

"U mgiht wanna sit down"


End file.
